


Overnight

by Torple_what



Category: Amar a Muerte (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baby Gay Disasters, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2019-11-05 19:47:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17925203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torple_what/pseuds/Torple_what
Summary: She didn’t feel like a stranger, and that’s what scared Valentina the most. Everything about her felt exciting, addicting even. And somehow familiar.College AU. Juliana works at the university library and Valentina is a gay disaster who can't stay away.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a whole lot of fluff 'cause we need it, my dudes!

Valentina was going to fail, and there was no one to blame but herself. 

She’d overslept and lost even more time than the hours she blew off last night to get drunk and distracted in sloppy dancing. She already gave Lucho an earful for guilting her into going out - and for the resulting hangover - but even though he should have listened the first half dozen times she said she needed to stay in and work, she shouldn’t have caved.

And now, with the afternoon sun streaming through the library windows, fueling the sharp pain in her temples, she was really starting to panic. 

The assignment was due tonight and she hadn’t even started. 

She blew a strand of loose hair away from her face in a frustrated huff. Her fingers had been splayed across the laptop keys for what seemed like forever, but the pounding in her head made it impossible to concentrate. The cursor blinked relentlessly against her empty document, mocking her. 

_ I’m going to fail _ , she typed before hitting the delete button in quick succession, loud enough for the student at the next table to look over. 

“Sorry,” Valentina muttered before letting her head fall to the table with a soft thud. 

“Ah, been there” he said. “Good luck.”

She flashed a thumbs up in his direction but didn’t lift her head, and his low chuckle brought a resigned quirk to her lips. 

At least she wasn’t alone in her misery. There was nothing quite like the atmosphere of collective suffering in the university library.

Knowing she wasn’t going to accomplish much in her current state, she dragged herself away from the scuffed tabletop and headed towards the coffee stand on the opposite side of the room. There weren’t too many drink options - the small café was more of a convenience for students who didn’t want to leave for a caffeine fix - but she just needed  _ something _ to help make her feel more or less human again.

Surprisingly, there was no line.

The barista was studying like everyone else. She sat on a stool behind the register, dark hair swept back in a messy ponytail, head tucked towards an open textbook that was resting on the counter. The highlighter in her hand moved briskly over a passage. Lost in the pages, she hadn’t yet noticed Valentina standing there.  

Valentina cleared her throat and the girl looked up, and for a moment time slowed as if it were wading through water instead of moving freely. The concentrated crease in the brunette’s brow smoothed as she glanced at her interrupter. Her warm brown eyes landed on Valentina, and her surprised expression was quickly replaced by a kind smile.

Something settled deep in Valentina’s stomach - a feeling she couldn’t place. Not deja vu, but similar. The moment seemed to hang in the air between them and stretch thin before Valentina noticed the girl was saying something, and then everything snapped back into place.

“- don’t usually do this, but the guy who normally has this shift called out sick last minute.”

Valentina promptly snapped her mouth shut, hoping the girl hadn’t noticed her gaping like a fish.

“Sorry,” Valentina said, the word getting half-caught between her lips and coming out far quieter than intended. She tried again. “You don’t do what?”

The girl offered a small smile and quirked her head, amused or intrigued or both, and all of a sudden Valentina was entirely too warm as heat bloomed in her chest and spread, coloring her cheeks.

The barista gestured to her textbook, now closed on the counter, and repeated what Valentina’s traitorous ears refused to catch the first time. “Study on the job so hard that I don’t notice customers. But, like I said, I don’t normally work today and was counting on this time…”

She trailed off.

Finally, Valentina found her voice. “No worries! I guess the semester isn’t kicking only my ass.”

The brunette laughed, and the smooth cadence of it tugged Valentina’s lips into a smile. It felt like an accomplishment for some reason, making her laugh. Valentina looked forward to doing it again, as if it were an inevitability and this wasn’t just a one-off conversation with someone she’d never see after today.

“Hardly,” the girl said. “Just look around.” She gestured to the packed room of students huddling over books, typing frantically, and flipping through notes. Some guy sat staring blankly into the abyss, clearly zoned out and most likely burned out. One girl was openly crying. “Misery loves its company.” 

“I was just thinking that earlier,” Valentina said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, hopefully I can help ease some of yours,” said the girl, and Valentina’s heart stuttered. She wondered, for the umpteenth time in the span of this short interaction, what the hell was wrong with her. “What can I get you?” 

Valentina just stared for a second before remembering why she started talking to the brunette in the first place. 

“Right,” she said in a rush, embarrassed. “God, I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. I’m so sorry - I’m hungover. Ignore me. Can I have a coffee, please?” 

“Studying with a hangover,” the girl said as she entered the order, “can’t think of anything worse.” 

“Writing an essay,” Valentina countered grumpily, handing over the money for her drink. 

“You got me there.” She gave Valentina a small, sympathetic smile as she reached for a cup and began to fill it. 

As the steaming liquid rose, it weighed on Valentina like an hourglass. Her time with this girl slipping away like sand through her fingers, and she got the sudden urge to leap over the counter and throw the cup in the trash.

But it was already too late. The barista handed her the cup, telling her to be careful because it was very hot, and all Valentina could do was mutter a thank you and try not to let her disappointment show. 

Just as Valentina was about to choke out a (probably embarrassing) farewell, the brunette surprised her. “Wait,” she said, throwing up a hand and gesturing for Valentina to stay put. Not that Valentina’s feet were capable of doing more than rooting themselves to the floor, apparently. “Just one second.” 

The girl moved behind the bakery case and pulled out a few pastries. She put them in a bag and handed them to Valentina.

“I’m not sure what you like, obviously,” she said, “so I put a couple different ones in there.” 

“Oh, no,” Valentina protested, “That’s okay, I -” 

“I insist,” the girl replied. “Coffee only does so much for a hangover. You need these. Trust me, it’ll help.” 

“...Okay,” Valentina gave in. She opened her purse but the girl shook her head.

“They’re on me,” she said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But,” Valentina sputtered, “That’s so nice. It’s - but you don’t -”

The girl just smiled as Valentina fumbled over her words.

“It’s my pleasure,” she said. “Good luck with your essay. I hope you feel better.”

“You too,” Valentina said. And she really could have kicked herself.

The brunette’s eyes were bright with amusement, making Valentina’s stomach flip.

“Okay, well I should probably go,” Valentina said.

“Okay, bye,” she said.

“Bye.”

Valentina turned to go, clutching the baked goods like a lifeline. She made it two steps before whirling back around.

“Wait,” she said, “I’m Valentina.” She tucked the pastry bag under her arm and extended her free hand.

“Juliana,” the girl replied, her fingers closing around Valentina’s.

“Juliana,” Valentina repeated, memorizing the name and enjoying the warmth of the other girl’s hand in hers.

And then it was as if someone had dumped cold water down her spine, unease sinking into her bones. It made her hastily drop Juliana’s hand and back away. What she was feeling because of this girl - this stranger - was confusing.

She didn’t feel like a stranger, and that’s what scared Valentina the most. Everything about her felt exciting, addicting even. And somehow familiar.

She had no idea what was happening. 

Juliana’s brow furrowed, concern coloring her features.

“Um - It was nice to meet you,” Valentina managed. “Thanks for these,” she said, waving the bag in front of her like some kind of awkward flag.

And then she walked away, Juliana’s reply muffled by the frantic rush of blood in her ears.

When she got back to her table, everything was as she left it. Her laptop sat open, cursor blinking in intimidation.

Had it really only been minutes?

She packed her bag quickly, slamming the laptop closed and shoving it inside. She needed a change of scenery.

“Yeah, fuck it. I’m done too,” the guy next to her said as she slung her bag over her shoulder. “Grades mean nothing!”

She stole a glance behind her as she made her way to the exit, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw Juliana watching her. Juliana snapped her head away, caught.

And then Valentina pushed through the doors, back into a world that hopefully made sense.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valentina tries to casually bump into Juliana again but there's nothing casual about it.

What started as a nice lunch had suddenly blown up.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and the group of friends managed to snag a patio table at their favorite on-campus restaurant. They had just ordered another round of drinks.

But now Lucho was out of his mind, words clattering from his mouth like a shattered jar of marbles, splintering the tranquility of the afternoon. People at surrounding tables turned their heads in distaste, and Valentina, Sergio, and Nayeli glanced at them apologetically, urging Lucho to keep it down.

Valentina wasn’t sure what happened. One minute the four friends were joking around and the next Lucho was bringing up the fight he and Valentina had last week - an argument she thought was done and buried with everything else the couple pushed aside.  

“Why is it wrong that I want to spend time with my girlfriend,” he said, gesturing wildly as if begrudging the universe for giving him someone who didn’t worship the ground he walked on. “It’s like you never want to be around me anymore,” he continued, possessively reaching for her arm.

Valentina pulled back reflexively, withdrawing like from sparks of fire. She hated when he was like this.

She crossed her arms protectively and glanced at their two friends - they looked like they were trying to sink into their chairs.

“What do you call this?” Valentina said, shrugging. “Am I not here?”

Sergio snorted into his drink as he took a sip, and Lucho glared at him. Sergio pushed his plate aside, resting his arms on the table as he leaned towards his friend and said in a low voice, “Dude, chill.”

“This is none of your business,” Lucho snapped, but Sergio just quirked his brow, unphased.

Lucho raked a hand through his hair in annoyance but then took a short, deep breath, his shoulders slumping in the exhale. He looked back at Valentina, abandoning his indignation for faux regret, his features smoothing into a sulk and his dark eyes settling on hers, imploring in the way that had ended so many arguments in the past. “Look,” he said, quieter. “I’m sorry I yelled. I just really care about you, and lately it seems like you don’t care at all.”

Normally it would work. Just wanting the argument to end, she would placate him - saying whatever was needed to soothe his fragile ego. And then they’d be fine for a few days before they found something else to fight about.

But if she was honest with herself, she knew this needed to stop - she couldn’t remember the last time they’d been happy. She didn’t love him, and he knew that, but she used to at least enjoy his company. He was a distraction from the house when the quiet threatened to swallow her whole. A good-enough looking and convenient date for family functions. Someone to get drunk with and forget herself with and laugh with, when he wasn’t being a complete ass. But then everything shifted - it happened slowly at first, and then all at once he was less an escape and more a firm hand, possessive and scrambling to keep her close.

And now there was so much water under their bridge she felt she was drowning in it. 

He wasn’t sorry, he just wanted to mold her like clay in his hands. But she was done bending for him.

She was about to say as much when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her.  

Valentina had been trying and failing to get this girl out of her head all week, and suddenly there she was, on the opposite sidewalk.

Her heart hummed in her chest, the flutter knitting its way nervously through her ribs. She swallowed and couldn’t look away, her eyes following the girl as she moved.

Juliana was dressed casually in a loose-fitting top, her jeans folded up at the ankles above worn sneakers. Her hair was down today and its rich, deep brown looked almost black as it rippled freely in the breeze, reminding Valentina of steady river waters at night. She had a book tucked under her arm and she walked briskly, twisting past the slower movers, face set in the determined expression of someone who’s running late.

“You see,” Lucho said, slapping a hand on the table for emphasis and abruptly pulling her attention back to him. “You don’t even listen to me!”

She looked past his head and back across the street, trying to keep track of Juliana - but she had disappeared, lost in the crowd.

“What are you staring at,” he demanded, swiveling around to follow her gaze.

“Nothing,” she replied, “My head is just all over the place today.”

“When is it not,” he said.

She bristled at the venom in his tone. “What is your problem, Lucho?”

“You,” he snapped.

Valentina rolled her eyes. “Such a gentleman.”

She could practically see the smoke coming out of his ears.

“Look,” she continued, “You're being crazy and I don’t want to be around you right now.”

She stood up quickly, setting some money on the table for the bill. She muttered an apologetic goodbye to Sergio and Nayeli and turned to go. 

“Maybe we shouldn’t be together then,” Lucho yelled at her back.

She didn’t turn around, but flipped him off as she made her way down the sidewalk.

She supposed that was as good a way to end it as any.

 

* * *

 

Valentina didn’t know where she was headed, but she found herself in front of the library. Strange, she thought, that she hardly ever came here but had been twice in the span of a week.

She was an hour into a random book she pulled from a nearby shelf, curled into one of the comfy chairs by the little café, when she heard the library doors swing open. She glanced up expectantly but was disappointed to see two friends stroll in, their laughter splattering from the street into the quiet space like a paintball.

The librarian was quick to stamp out their mirth - her withering stare cutting through the disturbance like an unsheathed sword.

Valentina returned to the pages splayed open in her lap, eyes flitting across the words but processing none of it as the doors opened again and her head snapped up. She realized, with a shock, that she was waiting for Juliana.  

Which was crazy, she thought as she closed the book, because she’d literally just seen the girl and she was clearly headed somewhere else.

A soft, disbelieving laugh snuck past her lips and she fidgeted a hand through her hair, filled with a restless excitement that she wasn’t sure how to handle.

She just couldn’t shake the feeling that she was meant to know her, to be her friend.

 _Okay psycho_ , she thought as she got up to return the book where she found it. But even as she left and the doors clinked shut behind her, she knew she’d be back.

She wouldn't be able to ignore this.

Plus, she thought as she called for a driver to come pick her up, it wouldn't be weird for her to come back. She'd just be a good student. 

 

* * *

 

She did go back - three days in a row and at different times just in case - but Juliana was never there.

 _I will find you, you elusive coffee wizard,_ she vowed. The alcohol swam pleasantly under Valentina’s skin and tugged her lips into a lazy smile.  

“Thought she worked there,” she mumbled to herself as the car smoothed its way through late-night streets. She stared raptly at the city lights passing in colorful blurs.

“Hey,” she said to the driver, speaking before her brain could catch up. “We have to make a stop first.” 

He hesitated, glancing back at her through the rear-view mirror. “Are you sure, miss?” He said. “I could always take you tomorrow. It might be best to go home tonight…”

“It’s totally okay, Alirio,” she assured him. “I only had a couple drinks.”

Plus, she reasoned, he’d be waiting for her anyway so what’s the worst that could happen?

When they pulled to a stop in front of the library, she didn’t wait for him to open her door. She flung it open and ungracefully tumbled out, giggling at her own haste.

“Be right back,” she said, and then slammed the door before he could object.

She had never been here this late, preferring to work through all-nighters in the comfort of her room, away from distractions.

The library was a palpable kind of silent this time of night, like the air was stuffed with wool. Valentina felt as though she ought to tiptoe across the carpeted floors.

She passed by clumps of abandoned tables, vacant chairs tucked in like gravestones.

The space was so empty that each person stuck out like a fluorescent sign: an anxious-looking girl scribbling on flash cards; the friend next to her raking his tired eyes across the screen in front of him; a middle aged librarian pushing a cart of books, pausing to return one to its shelf; a janitor sliding money into a vending machine. 

And a barista engrossed in a notebook, pencil dragging methodically across paper.

A nervous thrill shot through Valentina, starting in her chest and tumbling down, knotting in her stomach as a triumphant smile pulled at her lips, crinkling her eyes at the corners.  

 _Finally,_ after days of trying to casually bump into the girl, there she was.

Valentina’s feet carried her to the coffee stand of their own accord, and she was suddenly right in front of her. 

Juliana looked up and grinned in recognition, which sent Valentina’s pulse racing. “Hello again.”

“Hi,” Valentina said, feeling heat flush her cheeks. She was smiling entirely too wide to be normal, and she tried to pull it back, biting her lip.

“Late study night for you?”

“Nope,” Valentina answered, before cursing internally. Why the hell else would she be there? “I, uh,” she stammered, “...was in the neighborhood.”

“Is that so,” Juliana said, her eyes alight.

“Yup,” Valentina said, dumbly, searching for an excuse as to why she was there at 3am on a Friday night with no school work to speak of. “I wanted...um...tea” she finished. “Everywhere else is closed,” she added when Juliana quirked a brow in amusement.

 Nailed it.

“Ah,” Juliana said. “Lucky for you, I have the best blend in town.”

“Really?” 

“Well, for this time of night,” she said with a shrug, reaching into a cabinet for a tin of loose leaf. Valentina fidgeted while Juliana worked, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and chewing the inside of her cheek to keep herself from babbling.

Juliana’s notebook lay closed on the counter, its pages arched around the pencil wedged between them and abusing the leather bindings. It looked like a sketch book, and curiosity trickled through Valentina like a stone carried in a tide.

Valentina forced her attention from the book as Juliana turned back to her, cup in hand, steam swirling towards the soft lights above and filling the air with a minty aroma.

“Your masterpiece,” she joked, head half-bowed as she presented the cup to Valentina like a golden chalice.

Valentina grinned.

But as she reached forward, her fingers brushed against Juliana’s and it felt like a swift kick to the gut. She jerked away in surprise, sloshing the scalding drink over her hand.

“Shit,” Juliana said, eyes wide, as Valentina let out a strangled, stunned laugh.

Juliana tugged at Valentina’s wrist and pulled her to the sink behind the coffee stand, hurrying her hand under a stream of cold water to soothe the angry skin.

“Oh my God,” Valentina gasped, finally reacting. “Did I get you too?”

“No, I’m good,” Juliana replied, eyes fixed on the flushed skin beneath the faucet, concern giving way to relief as she determined the hand wasn’t going to fall off. “Are you okay?”

Truth be told, Valentina didn’t even feel the burn. Besides her embarrassment at being a human disaster, she was also hyper aware of Juliana’s hand gently pressed against hers - the cool of the water at odds with the tingling warmth of the brunette’s skin.

Juliana looked up in question and Valentina nodded.

She cleared her throat, mouth suddenly dry. “Yes, I’m fine. Totally my fault - obviously. I’m so glad I didn’t hurt you. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Juliana murmured. “The _one_ time I don’t say ‘careful it’s hot,’” she quipped.

And Valentina raised her free hand to cover the bashful uptick of her lips.

There was a moment of silence then. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but in her inebriated state Valentina just had to break it.

“I didn’t see you this week,” she blurted. 

“Sorry?” Juliana said.

“Well, I did -” she continued, before she realized that telling Juliana about staring at her on the street might weird her out a bit. “I mean. I didn’t,” she backtracked, and Juliana’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Here, I mean. I was here a couple times this week but I didn’t see you.”

A pause. 

“Not that I was looking!” She added. “I just noticed you weren’t...here…” 

“Oh,” Juliana said, brightly. And she didn’t look weirded out - if anything, she seemed amused by Valentina’s rambling. “I don’t normally work during the day, if that’s when you were here. We’re open 24 hours on weekdays, so I have some night shifts.” 

Valentina mumbled something about that making sense because, look at the time. And Juliana didn’t say anything, just smiled at her softly in a way that made Valentina’s head swim.

Or was that the alcohol?

Juliana switched off the water and let go of Valentina’s hand, the tips of her ears pinking as if she forgot she was still holding onto it. 

“I think we got it in time,” she said, drying her hands on a nearby towel before offering it to Valentina. “It doesn’t look too bad.” 

“Yeah, thanks for all this,” Valentina said. “I might have lost the hand without you,” she added with a smirk.

Juliana played along. “Good thing I was here. We baristas are classically trained in the burn prevention arts.”

“Well,” Valentina said, “technically you didn’t _prevent_ it…”

Juliana made a face, feigning offense. “Are you questioning my methods?” 

Valentina’s answering grin was toothy and unguarded, her blue eyes shining. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had pulled such undisguised emotion from her, and it was intoxicating. 

It made her bold. “What would you do if I was?”

She was surprised to see a blush bloom across Juliana’s cheeks as the girl looked down, biting her lip to conceal a demure smile. Valentina inadvertently leaned closer to the shorter girl, and Juliana fiddled with the bracelets coloring her wrist, suddenly very interested in their arrangement and unable to meet Valentina’s eye. And Valentina was overcome with the urge to brush the dark curtain of hair away from Juliana’s face - to gently lift her chin back up.

Valentina’s fingers twitched at her sides, and she carefully clasped her hands behind her back, distracting them from their need to _touch_.

Something about this girl felt as inevitable as gravity, and it was terrifying in a way that made her utterly lost as to what she should do next.

She was caught between searching for something new to talk about - _anything_ to keep the conversation and their time together going - and making a run for it.

She was a mix of disappointed and grateful when Alirio made the decision for her, appearing suddenly to make sure she was okay and effectively popping the bubble that had enveloped the pair.

Their goodbye was awkward - stumbling see you laters spilling into graceless hand waves. Valentina’s farewell hovered between them as she turned to go, hand sinking like a plastic bag in a floundering breeze.

At least she didn’t throw up some finger guns.

Crisp night air filled her lungs as she left the old-paper-and-coffee smells and the warmth of shy smiles behind. But even as it weaved its way through her, she was breathless.

And later, as she stood under a warm spray of water to wash the day away, the heat of it stinging the newly sensitive skin on her hand, she smiled.  


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, romance!

After that night, what little restraint Valentina had (not that she had much to begin with) disappeared like ash thrown to the wind.

She figured out which nights Juliana worked through trial and error - knowing the girl had the night shift on weekdays and narrowing it down from there.

Valentina’s weekend dragged on, time slugging as if it were weighed down by her thoughts of the brunette.

Her classes on Monday ticked by at a glacial pace, and she could hardly contain her anticipation. She didn’t hear a word her teachers said - eyes drifting constantly to clocks she swore were broken because the hands _barely_ moved, and nails drumming on desktops, irritating her classmates.

She met up with friends for drinks just to distract herself, and she didn’t even care that Lucho showed up - because of course he did, he always plowed right past her boundaries. At least if he started a fight it would help pass the time.

When 12am rolled around, she thought Juliana must be there by now. She was practically bursting with excitement as she waved away her friends’ protests and left them to continue the night without her.

But when she made it to the library at last, she felt herself deflate like a balloon. Because there was a random lanky dude behind the coffee stand, and he winked suggestively as he told her _I’ll be here all night_ when she asked if he was the only one working that evening.

She flashed him an unimpressed look as she spun on her heel and left, cursing under her breath.

She had higher hopes on Monday, but to no avail.

On Tuesday, the library doors barely got the chance to close before she swung back through them, crestfallen.  

On Wednesday night, she was rewarded. She looked automatically to the cafe across the room, and her barista was there, ringing in an order for a student who looked dead on his feet.

Valentina practically skipped her way over there, oblivious to the perplexed stares of nearby sleep-deprived undergrads.

If Juliana was surprised to see Valentina she hid it well, glancing past the disheveled procrastinator she was helping to give Valentina a little nod in recognition. She looked happy, though, tucking her hair behind her ears to distract the smile sneaking its way through.

But as soon as the other student left and it was just the two of them, Juliana _beamed_. And Valentina’s heart swooped against her sternum because Juliana was beautiful, and her eyes were dancing with light because she was excited, and Valentina couldn’t believe her luck that such a dazzling smile was for _her._

Any apprehension Valentina had at seeing the other girl again dissipated like a fog in morning light. She felt all of the bottled up nervous energy between the pair yield to a warm eagerness, folding over them like a blanket.

She found out that Juliana liked to work 3 nights in a row so that she didn’t have to keep shifting from normal sleep schedule to night owl throughout the week, getting it all done in one stretch.

“I’ve got it down now,” she said. “But the first couple weeks I was like a zombie.”

Valentina came back on Thursday and Friday. She fabricated a huge assignment as an excuse but ended up actually getting some work done, because Juliana kept apologizing for distracting her in conversation when she should be working. 

Valentina began to resent weekends. Any night not spent in the library felt like a waste, honestly.  

And soon, their time together became routine.

Valentina would come in and Juliana would make her a drink, the two of them falling into easy conversation until Valentina managed to drag herself away and sink into one of the comfy chairs nearest to the coffee counter, settling in to get some work done.

And now, laptop resting against her thighs, she was trying her best to concentrate on stringing words together coherently for her article and not on the brunette just a few feet away.

But the girl continuously invaded her thoughts - it was annoying.

She had this whole unassuming vibe going on - her sharp jawline, dark eyes, and quick wit softened by the sweet pull of her lips and an unhurried laugh, throaty and hushed at first and then bubbling out like rich velvet.

Juliana was beautiful in a quiet way, accentuated by soft shirts and faded denim, oversized flannels and scuffed sneakers. She carried herself with such comfortability, just strolling through life in her gentle, honest way, and Valentina found it both adorable and admirable - she had never met anyone who was so unapologetically themselves, without an agenda.

But while Juliana was soft, she was loud in Valentina’s mind.

She made Valentina want to be a better person. The more time she spent with girl, the more she recognized that her life didn’t really feel like her own - she just filled a role.

God, even the way the brunette _smelled_ was distracting. She smelled better than anyone should - it was unfair, really - tempting Valentina to move into her space, to be closer.

But she didn’t, because that would be weird.

Instead, she popped one of the chocolates she brought into her mouth and let its sweetness take over her senses, the sugar melting over her tongue and filling her nose with cacao. She was happy Juliana was enjoying the candy as well - it was from Valentina’s favorite dessert place downtown.

The previous week, the barista had let out a frustrated huff, groaning that it was too late to get food and that she always forgot to bring some. The cafe’s baked goods were always gross by the time she got there, and she joked that it was a wonder she had survived so long.

So Valentina had started bringing snacks with her.

Juliana objected at first, as Valentina held out some leftover pie Chivis had made.

“Val, you don’t need to bring me anything,” she had said.

“Well, you give me so many delicious drinks so it’s only fair.” 

“That’s not the same,” she laughed, “it’s my job.”

“Uh huh,” Valentina, smirked. “Yet somehow those drinks are always ‘on the house.’”

She raised a brow in challenge, pleased when Juliana blushed and looked away.

“It’s only fair,” she continued, as Juliana bit her lip in a way that told Valentina she was going to give in soon. “It seems like a great trade to me - drinks for snacks.”

“Fine,” Juliana said, taking the pie from Valentina and setting it on the counter between them. “But only because this looks delicious and I love pie. And,” she grabbed two forks from the nearby dispenser and handed one to Valentina “You have to share it with me.”

“Deal,” Valentina said through a squinty-eyed, nose-scrunched grin.

So now here they were, in chocolatey bliss.

And Valentina was determined to keep her eyes locked on her computer screen, even though she was currently knee deep in writer’s block.

Because whenever the two of them were determined to get some work done, they always seemed to look up towards each other at the same time, slipping into quiet laughter as their eyes met. Juliana would shush her with a teasing, disapproving this-is-a-library look, and Valentina would narrow her eyes at the other girl in a way that said _this isn’t just_ my _fault, you started it._

But even with the constant distraction of the other girl’s presence, this whole situation was really doing wonders for Valentina’s school work. Normally she waited until the day before something was due to start it, but since she needed an excuse to be in the library all the time anyway, playing the part of a really good student actually turned her into one, finishing assignments way ahead of time. 

She was just a sucker for knowledge, apparently. After all, she had learned quite a bit since these late night rendezvous started.

She learned that Juliana was an artist, but was also studying psychology.

Juliana said the two went hand in hand, and that to truly capture the essence of a subject, she needed to understand it - what made people tick, how they interacted with the surrounding world, and how that world embraced them in turn.

Valentina told her she felt similarly about writing - in order to find the truth and lay it out there, it was necessary to connect, to empathize, and to adapt to situations.

She learned that the brunette preferred sweet snacks over savory.

She learned that Juliana wasn’t as soft as Valentina made her out to be - usually distrusting of people until she got to know them.

She learned that Juliana didn’t drink often because her dad had been a mean drunk, so she never developed much of a taste for alcohol. And Valentina had been mortified that she was hungover and then drunk the first 2 times she interacted with the girl. Juliana laughed it off as Valentina shrank into a facepalm. Valentina assured her she didn’t drink all the time - even though she kind of did.

She learned that maybe she shouldn’t drink so much. And she promised herself that she’d never make Juliana uncomfortable.

She learned that Juliana always had her sketchbook with her. She drew while Valentina wrote.

She learned that she _really_ wanted to see what was inside of that sketchbook.

And now Valentina learned (re-learned, rather) that she had no self control when it came to Juliana.

She let her gaze wander to the other girl, trying and failing to suppress a smile when those brown eyes met hers.

“What,” Juliana asked, wary about the mischievous look on Valentina’s face.

Valentina shut her computer and hopped up, assignment already forgotten as she leaned over the coffee counter towards Juliana.

“I was just wondering,” she started, “if you’re ever going to let me see what’s in there.” She inclined her head towards the book that Juliana had discretely closed at her approach.

“And are you going to ever let me read any of your work?”

“Sure,” she said without question, and Juliana was visibly stunned, clearly expecting an impasse.

It took a bit of convincing, but after some pleading the brunette eventually slid the book to her.

And then Valentina learned more about the world through how Juliana saw it.

She drank everything in greedily, eyes roaming across pages filled with some landscapes she recognized and some she didn’t, over the textured shading of hands, fingers reaching out to pull her further in. She poured over depictions of old stacked books. The worn leather chair Valentina had just been sitting in. A cracked china cup on a saucer. The spray of water rippling in a grand fountain.

And then the pages danced into faces so full of life they looked like monochrome photographs. Likenesses of students bent over schoolwork. A young boy sitting on a park bench, his dog panting beside him. There were quite a few of a man and woman. The woman looked a bit like Juliana, her dark eyes fixed adoringly on the man, his arm slung around her shoulders, head thrown back in a laugh.

“My mom and step-dad,” Juliana offered, and Valentina looked up at the words but was no less enchanted with the art cradled in her hands. “This place is filled with inspiration,” she continued, flipping a page, her fingers hovering over a sketch of an elderly woman slumped and dozing in a chair. “See,” she said, pointing to the librarian slumbering at the front desk near the entrance. It was an uncanny portrayal, and Valentina honest to God snorted.

Juliana smiled. “It’s one of the reasons I like working here, at night in the quiet. Everything else kind of falls away and I can just take everything in and...I don’t know...be.”

“These are incredible,” Valentina praised, marveling at the way Juliana humbly inclined her head, shrugging off her talent. “Really,” she said, reaching for Juliana’s arm in a heartfelt squeeze, “I am blown away.”

“Thank you,” Juliana said, proud and modest in the same breath.

“You have to draw me something sometime,” Valentina said excitedly. “Seriously,” she gushed when Juliana looked at her like she was full of it. “And you have to sign it, so I can tell everyone I have a Juliana original and that I knew you before all of the fame and fortune.”

Juliana shoved her arm playfully. “Stop it.”

“Never. You have to promise to draw me something!”

“Val - “

“Promise!” She implored, hands coming together as if in prayer. “Please.”

“Okay, okay,” Juliana gave in with a charmed eye roll.

Valentina punched the air and let out a celebratory “Yes!” and Juliana shushed her, reaching out to pull the taller girl’s arm back to her side, her hand trailing its way down to rest in Valentina’s.

Valentina’s stomach somersaulted as she looked down between them, swinging their hands slightly but not letting go.

Juliana swallowed thickly and gave Valentina’s fingers a gentle squeeze before dropping them slowly, her fingers gliding along Valentina’s until there was nowhere left to go.

“Your turn,” Juliana said, holding out a palm and beckoning with curled fingers. “Hand it over.”

“Hand what over,” Valentina said, straightfaced. Juliana wasn’t impressed, and didn’t dignify that with a response.

“Okay,” Valentina said, cracking a smile.  “Give me a minute.”

As she browsed through her documents, she caught sight of the time and cursed internally. It was nearing 3:30am and she had promised her brother she’d have breakfast with him the next day. Well, in a couple hours at this point. 

She clicked open a file, and a piece she had written last year popped up. It was about the concept of love, and it was from a creative writing class so it was very different from what she normally wrote, but for whatever reason that’s the one she sent to the printer.

She brought the still-warm pages over to Juliana, apology already on her lips that she had to leave because of an early morning.

And Juliana was gracious, of course, all _Get home safely_ and _You shouldn’t have stayed so late, get some sleep!_

Before she handed the pages over, Valentina took out a pen and scribbled her phone number in a margin.

“In case you want to tell me what an amazing writer I am,” she joked, smugly.  

“So modest,” Juliana replied, but her eyes lingered on the number before flicking back up to Valentina’s, her confident expression betrayed only by the tinge of pink on the tips of her ears.

Valentina held her gaze. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” she agreed.

And as Valentina forced her feet to move - eyes burning and begging for sleep - she could feel Juliana’s smile follow her as she left, like sunshine on her back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juliana is a precious bean and Valentina is charming af

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super bummed we won't be seeing our girls every week.
> 
> I feeel like there's a lot more in this chapter than I meant to write? But I don't know what I'm doing, so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Apologies for any errors - I got to a point where words didn't look like words anymore. 
> 
> Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your lovely comments and kudos. You guys are rock-stars!

The first thing Valentina saw the next morning, when she rolled over to pitifully smack at her blaring phone, was a chain of texts. Many were from Lucho, which she ignored, one was from Guille telling her of his arrival, and two were from an unknown number.

She shot up in bed, kicking off the sheets tangled around her legs.

     Unknown: _You have a way with words_

     Unknown: _Not really sure I believe your argument though. Have to talk about it..._

It was a rare thing for Valentina to smile so soon after waking - always a bit of a grump until her personality loaded. It was an even rarer thing for her to be downright giddy.

But there she was, squirming with excitement. She fell back to her pillow in a satisfying whoosh of cotton, fingers tapping out a response.

_I’m a cynic. Did you not know?_

_We’ll talk later. Also I’m dying._

She gave herself another minute to smile stupidly at the ceiling and then she dragged herself up to brush her teeth and head downstairs, not bothering to change just yet.

Her phone buzzed when she was halfway down the steps.

     Juliana: _Cynic my ass_

     Juliana: _You shouldn’t have stayed so late!_

        _Worth it. Got to see some museum worthy art._  

Guille pulled her into a bear hug as soon as he saw her. “You look like a tumbleweed,” he chuckled, pulling away.

“Shut up,” she grumbled, smoothing her hair and scooching her chair under the table. Chivis had made more food than they could possibly eat.

Her brother handed her a cup of coffee and then slid a pitcher of water her way as well, misreading her exhaustion for a hangover.

He hid a smile behind his orange juice. “We didn’t have to do this today.”

And Valentina thought he was going for sympathetic, but the glint in his eye told her that he was more entertained by her dishevelment than anything else.

“We could have rescheduled.”

Valentina shook her head. “No. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever - you’ve been so busy. I didn’t want to bail.”

She dished some eggs and fruit onto her plate and dug in.

“Not just me,” he said, grabbing a piece of toast and taking a bite. “I hear you’ve hardly been around here lately.”

“Lots of schoolwork,” she said. She felt bad for bending the truth, but she also wasn’t sure how to explain everything without sounding crazy.

His expression shifted in a way that said he knew there was something else going on, but he let it slide. “Good for you. You’ll be top of the class.”

And that’s what she loved about him - he never pushed.

She switched the subject. “How are things with you?”

Just then, her phone hummed in her lap, and she had to restrain herself from snatching it up that instant. Instead, she listened distractedly as Guille told her all about a date night he and Renata had recently. She teased him about how smitten he was and told him she’d have to check out the restaurant he mentioned. Then she _casually_ allowed herself to glance down and read the messages.  

     Juliana: _Stoooop_

     Juliana: _Oh I forgot until just now_

     Juliana: _The library is closing at 12 tonight because the carpets are getting cleaned_

     Juliana: _Not sure if it’s worth coming or not if you were planning to stay late…_

_Bummer! I’ll still stop by for a little_

Because, obviously.

     Juliana: _Okay. I’m about to pass out. See you later!_

Valentina was wondering if she should respond or not when she felt Guille staring.

“What,” she said.

“Nothing,” he replied, holding up his hands. “You’re just very smiley this morning. Who are you talking to, Lucho?”

She groaned in distaste. “No. No, he and I are done. I’m just talking to a new friend.”

Curiosity piqued, he quirked a brow. When she didn’t offer any other details he said, “I didn’t like him anyway.”

And she should have been offended. At the very least, she should have cared a little bit that her brother never liked someone she dated on and off for years - but she couldn’t blame him. So she said as much, and he laughed.

The rest of their time together passed too quickly, but they promised to see each other more often.

When he was almost out the door, he inclined his head to the phone in her hand and said, “Just so you know, I’ve never smiled like that talking to just a friend.”

Valentina was taken so off guard she was at a loss for words.

Then he had the audacity to just smirk knowingly and leave.

And as she stood there in the wake of his departure, understanding hit her in a wave.

What she felt for Juliana wasn’t exactly news to her, but since she had never felt this way before it had been easier to chalk it up to intrigue.

Now that she’d heard it out loud, it was nearly impossible to think about anything other than her crush on the girl.

It was like a thread of light was looping its way through her, making something new.  

 

* * *

 

“I’ve always thought that fairy tales are just lies we tell ourselves to make life seem kinder than it is - I think they’re all full of crap. Because let me tell you something,” Valentina said as she hoisted another chair onto the table in front of her. “I’ve kissed many frogs, and none of them were princes.” 

Juliana scrunched up her face like she didn’t want to hear it. “Well, maybe you’re kissing the wrong ones.”

They continued to flip chairs upside down and slide them onto table tops, freeing the carpet in preparation for the cleaning crew. Juliana had argued against it, but Valentina insisted on helping out.

“You really don’t believe in love,” Juliana asked again, unconvinced.

Valentina shrugged.

“Like, at all?”

“Well of course I believe in love between family and friends and stuff - but that life changing, all consuming kind of love that everyone waits around for? No, I don’t think that ever really happens. I think people find someone they can see themselves growing with and that love is more about companionship than, I don’t know, fireworks or whatever.”

But she felt like a liar as she said the words - truth picking at her like a loose thread.

Juliana hummed thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Nothing, I just never expected to hear something like that from you.”

“Why, because I’m so charming?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

Juliana brightened. “Honestly, yes. You’re just so…” she searched for the words. “I mean, look at you” she said, giving her a once-over.

Valentina flushed.

“Besides the fact that you’ve got the whole long-haired, blue-eyed, I-sing-to-birds princess thing going on,” she said, as if comparing her to a princess wasn’t making Valentina silently implode, “I’ve never met anyone like you before. You just have a way about you  - I don’t know - a genuineness. You’re like a puppy.”

She laughed when Valentina’s eyes widened adorably, proving her point. “And maybe you don’t notice, but heads turn when you walk into a room. I don’t know - if you don’t believe in love I don’t think there’s any hope for the rest of us.”

The sincerity of the words and the way Juliana looked at her, like she hung the stars in the sky, pushed Valentina’s heart into overdrive. She was sure Juliana could hear its thrumming in the hushed room. 

She swallowed thickly, brimming with gentle assurances. “Don’t say that. If anyone will find it, it’s you.”

Juliana bowed her head slightly, hiding a half-smile as she considered a stain on the carpet between her sneakers.

“Juls,” she breathed. She reached out to sweep some loose hair behind the girl’s shoulder, resting her hand there and urging Juliana to look at her. Valentina hoped Juliana couldn’t feel the sweatiness of her palm through her shirt - _good lord_ everything was stifling all of a sudden.  

She wrangled her fear and admitted, in not much more than a whisper, “You’re so beautiful.”

Touched, Juliana cocked her head and gave Valentina an indulgent smile that said she didn’t believe it but was flattered anyway.

And Valentina’s chest _ached_ because it was true, and Juliana deserved to hear it. _Should_ hear it.

All at once, resolve rang through Valentina like a strummed chord -  she would be the one to say it. Every day. Because she could and because she wanted to.

And the thought didn’t scare her, because the possibility of someone else getting to do it was unfathomable. 

Her hand moved down Juliana’s arm, and she was about to open a whole can of sappy whoop-ass when her phone vibrated loudly against the table, making both of them jump.

 _Fucking Lucho_ , Valentina thought as she grabbed the offending device. He could never take a hint.

She ignored the call and swung her attention back to Juliana, who was now looking at her nails, torturing the cuticles of her thumb. 

“Are you sure that’s not important” she asked, evidently having glimpsed all of the missed calls from him.

“It’s not,” Valentina promised, sliding the phone into her back pocket.

“Ladies,” said a voice from the door, and they turned to see a librarian on her way out.

Halfway through the threshold, she called to them over her shoulder. “I think everything is all set. You can go.”

Juliana waved her off and then glanced around to find they were the last ones there besides the cleaning crew, setting up their equipment in the corner by the university computers. 

She grabbed their bags, handing Valentina’s to her as she inclined her head to the door. “Shall we?”

“Let me walk you home,” Valentina said, earnestly. 

Juliana’s face lit up in a silent laugh. “It’s okay, I walk home all the time by myself.”

“You usually don’t leave at this hour, though,” she countered as they made their way outside. “Who knows what weirdos are out. Please, it’ll make me feel better if I go with you.” 

Juliana sighed good-naturedly. “Come on, then.” 

Valentina grinned, falling into step beside her. 

She linked her arm through the brunette’s as they made their way down the sidewalk, cutting through the limited green of the university grounds. Juliana leaned into her slightly, and Valentina looked heavenward to thank whatever forces were in her favor that night - marveling at the night sky, its luster paled by the veil of city lights but still breathtaking.

Juliana saw her looking and tilted her head back too.

“It always makes me feel so small,” she said, and Valentina hummed in agreement. “But in a good way, you know? Like, we make life so complicated sometimes, but in reality all of our problems are tiny. It’s comforting.”

“Or terrifying,” Valentina chimed in. “Like our lives are kind of insignificant.”

“No, not like that! More like we’re a part of something bigger...so whatever happens, happens, and it’s all good.”

“Okay, but what if -” and then they both stumbled forward, Valentina lurching off balance when her foot struck an uneven sidewalk tile, almost taking them both down.

Juliana’s arm shot around Valentina’s waist to keep her from falling, even as the brunette burst into laughter. And Valentina was overwhelmed by the feeling of the girl’s hand above her hip and mortified by her clumsiness, but she forgot everything as she joined in with Juliana’s unapologetic cackling.

“I could have died,” Valentina joked, when the world steadied beneath her.

“I’m sorry,” Juliana managed. “It’s just - you looked like one of those floppy, inflatable dancing guys you see at a car dealership. You were all -” and she waved her arms over her head spastically in a rather embarrassing, but accurate, impersonation. 

“It’s good to know how you feel about me breaking my face.”

“Noo, not your face,” she said, eyes bright. Her lips softened at the corners, as if she were going to say something else but didn’t.

They continued to walk, bumping shoulders and slipping into laughing fits, until they reached the large fountain at the edge of campus. Wide and deep and alive, its gushing water spouted from the top and arched to cascade over each tier and down, rippling and reaching to kiss the marble edges of its foundation. Lit against the night, the water sparkled like hundreds of specs of glass.

“Your muse,” Valentina exclaimed, remembering Juliana's sketch. She pulled the other girl towards the fountain eagerly, sitting on one of the surrounding benches and patting the space next to her. 

“Yup,” Juliana said as she complied, settling in alongside her. 

They stayed like that for a bit, captivated by the harmonious ebb and flow against the city din. 

Valentina made a conscious effort to keep her eyes fixed on the fountain and not on Juliana. But in their stillness, she could feel the warmth of the brunette’s hand, resting so close to hers on the bench. It took everything in her to not reach out - but then she felt a shadow of a touch against her skin. It was barely there, just a graze of Juliana’s pinky against hers that could have been brushed off as accidental.   

But it was enough. 

With her heart in her throat, Valentina smoothed her finger along Juliana’s tentatively, gaining confidence when the other girl made no move to pull away.

She linked their pinkies together, and somehow it felt like the bravest thing she had ever done.

And as they both continued to stare straight ahead, not daring to look at each other or their flirting fingers, Valentina wondered how such an innocent touch could make her feel so alive.

“So,” she said in a distracted way, “out of all the fountains in the city, why this one?”

Juliana let out a slow exhale, like she’d been holding her breath. “Well, she isn’t the only fountain of my heart, but I do love her.” 

And she told Valentina why. 

She passed by it all the time, and it was important to see the beauty in everyday things so your world wouldn’t become unremarkable. She loved it in the day and at night. It was loud in the sun, bustling with the energy of people, and tranquil in the evening, a stalwart light in the darkness.

She’d always wanted to swim in a fountain like this. 

“Wait,” Valentina said. “You’ve never been in one? Not even when you were a kid?”

“I didn’t have that kind of childhood,” she replied, indifferently.

Valentina didn’t say anything, but at the crease between her eyes, Juliana continued.

“My mom and I haven’t been here very long. Only a couple years. And the life we had before...wasn’t good.”

And she told Valentina all about her father and the hell he put them through. All of the nights he came home violently drunk, and the nights he didn’t come home at all. The dangerous men he brought into their lives. The fear he held over Juliana that made her feel like an object in her own life.

Valentina shifted their hands, fully intertwining their fingers to offer comfort without words. 

“So, here we are. But yeah, no family fountain times,” she laughed, and Valentina’s heart broke for her. “I actually didn’t even know how to swim until recently, so I kind of suck at it.” 

Valentina cleared her throat, thick with emotion. “I’m so happy you’re here now. I’m so happy you’re safe.”

It was all she could manage, her eyes glistening.

But then fear prickled through her. “Are you afraid he’ll find you?”

“No, he never wanted me anyway. He’s probably glad to be rid of us, to be honest.” 

And the way she said it, like it was nothing, made Valentina resent the world - a quiet anger seeping through her like smoke.

Because she could see the hurt in Juliana’s eyes, poignant and heedless of the walls she had built.

All Valentina wanted was to make that pain go away. But as much as she wished she could, she couldn’t change the past - she could only do her best to make Juliana happy here and now.

She made her voice light. “Well, you know what, I’ll make a wish for you.” She gave Juliana’s hand a squeeze before she let go to dig through her purse. She pulled out a couple coins and held one up between them. “That he’ll never find you. Actually no! Even better - that he realizes what a huge mistake he made by being a total asshole, understands how incredible you are, and then he spends his whole life looking but never finds you.”

Juliana smiled, and Valentina smiled back.

She walked to the fountain to toss her coin and then returned, pressing the other into Juliana's palm. “Here,” she said. “Make a wish.” 

The brunette looked at Valentina like she didn’t believe in such things, and Valentina’s heart twinged at the thought that maybe she had never done this before. But then Juliana shifted in her seat as if gearing up for something good. She closed her eyes, thinking.

Valentina stared at her for several long moments, mesmerized, before Juliana’s eyes opened slowly, meeting hers. 

“What,” Juliana said. 

“Such concentration.”

“Well, if I’m doing this I’m going to do it right.”

She stood then, taking a breath before lobbing her coin into the water. It landed with a plop, cartwheeling to the bottom to lay with the other dreams.

“So,” Valentina said, meeting Juliana at the fountain’s edge. “What did you wish for?”

“I can’t tell you or it won’t come true.”

“But I just told you mine!”

“Well,” she shrugged, “that was dumb.”

Valentina snorted. “Rude,” she said, reaching down to flick some water at the girl.

Juliana yelped and sprang aside, avoiding most of it.

She looked at Valentina incredulously.

“What,” Valentina said, “you’re the one who wants to swim in it.”

A pause, and then: “Why don’t we?”

“Why don’t we what,” Juliana said. Valentina eyed the water below them.

“No! Absolutely not,” she argued as the taller girl nodded conspiratorially. “Val -” she hissed, looking around as Valentina bent to take off her shoes and socks. “Are you crazy? It’ll be freezing.”

Valentina shed her jacket.

Juliana crossed her arms, shaking her head.

Valentina sat on the rim of the fountain, not saying anything. She watched the cogs in the brunette’s head turn and waited for her to stop avoiding eye contact.   

“You’re so annoying,” she relented, ignoring Valentina’s smirk as she shrugged off her outer layers and kicked off her sneakers.

Valentina swung her legs over the side and down into the water, suppressing a cringe at the icy temperature. “Not bad at all.” She held a hand back for Juliana. “Coming?” 

Juliana took it.

And she gasped as soon as her skin breached the surface. “You liar,” she blurted, but Valentina was already racing away across the fountain, the freezing water saturating the denim of her pants and numbing her skin. 

She was invigorated. By the way Juliana went all in, splashing and chasing after her, around and around the fountain as Valentina tried to use the centerpiece as a shield. By her relentless pursuit until she caught her, tackling Valentina down and under, until both of them came back up, soaked and sputtering. 

By all of it. 

And Valentina had never thought of herself as gay. She still didn’t really think of herself as anything. But as she beheld Juliana - the way her sopping clothes clung to her, the way her laughter cut through the night, free and so full of joy, the way she slicked her hair back and away from her face - Valentina couldn’t look away. 

The girl was _radiant_.

They were shaking with laughter and shivers when they heard a shout from across the lawn. 

Juliana’s eyes widened comically as she swiveled, taking one glance at the cop headed their way before springing into action.

She was on her feet before Valentina even registered that they were in trouble. She pulled at Valentina’s elbow to haul her up, pushing her ahead until both of them scrambled out of the fountain, sloshing water over the side.

Juliana grabbed their things and shoved Valentina’s shoes into her hands before tugging her along. “Come on,” she half-laughed, half-panicked.

And then they were running.

If there was one thing Valentina was not, it was fast. But Juliana kept pace with her.

They darted past closed storefronts and through winding side streets, leaving a trail of wet footprints. Their laughter ricocheted across alleyways, and they flew by groups of people who looked at them like they were crazy. 

And then Juliana pulled her into an apartment building, nudging her towards the wall and out of sight as she peered past the door frame, making sure they weren’t followed.

The brunette smiled over her shoulder, still panting from their mad dash.

“I think we lost him,” she quipped.

Finally, Valentina’s mind caught up. “Oh my God, my family would have been so pissed.”

“Well,” Juliana said, setting their stuff on the ground, “now they’ll never know.”

Valentina nodded gratefully and dropped her shoes with the rest of their things. Her hair dripped annoyingly, and she swept it over her shoulders, resisting the urge to wring it out on the floor. 

“You know,” she said, struck by a sudden thought, “maybe there is something to the fairy tale nonsense.”

Juliana raised her eyebrows. 

“You were just my knight in shining whatever.”

“If only I had my sword and horse,” Juliana winked, and Valentina almost died.

“Well, you ran as fast as one.” 

Juliana threw her head back in a laugh, her chest heaving, and Valentina followed the trail of water on her collarbone.

She shivered. When Juliana noticed, she ran her hands up and down Valentina’s arms, trying to warm her up - joking about how she told her it was going to be cold, and now Valentina was probably going to get sick. 

And Valentina wasn’t sure how it happened, but her hands were on the brunette’s hips.

Juliana swallowed, and she stilled. “Your lips are blue,” she murmured.

The air around them was suddenly full - thick and charged like the buildup before a storm, the calm before it breaks.

Juliana’s eyes looked almost black in the low light of the hall, but emotions played across them in kaleidoscopic flashes - somehow steady and trusting, nervous and searching, hesitant and eager all at once. 

Valentina wanted to fall into them.

She wanted to kiss her.

So she did. 

She drew in a trembling gulp of air and leaned forward slowly, giving Juliana time to back away.

But she didn’t. Her mouth parted slightly as her gaze drifted to Valentina’s lips and back up, and then she was leaning in too. 

Juliana’s long lashes kissed her first, brushing feather-light against Valentina’s cheek as she closed her eyes. 

The brunette’s shaky breath kissed her second, teasing Valentina’s mouth as they shared the same air.

Valentina had never experienced a tenderness like this, and when she took that final leap and closed the distance between them it felt as though they had kissed before their lips met.

She felt Juliana inhale sharply, and for a second she worried that the girl would pull away. But then she melted against her, lips moving softly with Valentina’s as she raised a hand to her neck to keep her close - thumb stroking the skin behind Valentina’s ear in a way that made the taller girl’s pulse rush impossibly faster.

Warmth spread through Valentina like kindled embers, her heart glowing. Everything felt so _right_ , like a weight she hadn’t even known was there lifted from her shoulders.

The exhilaration made her brave, and she lightly ran her tongue along Juliana’s bottom lip, craving but waiting. And Juliana didn’t hesitate as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. 

Energy surged beneath her skin, like like honey in her veins, and Valentina’s fingers flexed against Juliana’s hips, drawing her firmly to her.

Juliana pulled back with a stuttering gasp before she reclaimed Valentina’s lips, and then they were a collision, pushing and pulling and stealing each other’s breath. Juliana pressed Valentina into the wall, and arousal sparked through her, hot a fast.

The water on Juliana’s skin somehow made her smell even better than she normally did, and Valentina couldn’t help breaking their kiss to move to her neck, inhaling the warm, aromatic smell of paper and coffee and juniper - crisp and sweet all at once, like a meadow after a rainstorm. 

Juliana’s pulse thrummed against her lips, and Valentina left a trail of open-mouthed kisses from her jaw to her collarbone, delighted in the gasp it earned her.

The sound of shattering glass outside made them jump apart.

A group passed by the door, carrying on in a way only drunk people do.

The moment broken, the two girls stared at each other for a second, breathing heavily before they straightened their clothes. Juliana looked as flustered as Valentina felt.

Not sure what else to do and hating the silence, Valentina started to say sorry before Juliana cut her off. “No. Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize...”

Juliana was shy now, but she held out a hand for Valentina to take.

They went upstairs to Juliana’s apartment, careful not wake her mom and step dad while they waited for Valentina’s ride to get there.

Juliana gave Valentina a towel to dry off. Then she handed her a sweatshirt as well, because somehow everything was wet now, even the clothes they set aside during their midnight swim.

They didn’t talk about what just happened - dancing around the subject in a way that made it bigger.

But when Alirio arrived and Juliana walked her back downstairs, she must have seen the uncertainty in Valentina’s face, because she pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to her cheek. She squeezed Valentina's hand in a way that said they’d talk about it, just not tonight.

Wanting to end the evening on a lighter note, Valentina said: “Hey, what did you wish for?”

And it worked. Juliana gave her an easy smile, and then shook her head. “Goodnight, Val.”

“Night, Juls.”

She backed out of the door with a lopsided grin, wanting to look at the brunette for as long as possible. 

As the car sped home, Valentina touched a hand to her still-tingling lips - and she remembered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Splatter time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haaaaappy Friday! 
> 
> YOU GUYS! I am blown away by all of the love you have for this story. Thank you so much for all of your kind words. I appreciate you - you're all gems! 
> 
> I actually planned to include a lot more in this chapter, but you all seemed eager for an update and it was going to take a while longer haha. So here's something! :)

For the second morning in a row, Valentina woke up smiling. Memories from the night before pulled her from sleep like a warm embrace, and she buried her face in her pillow as sunbursts of light bloomed across her eyelids.

She stretched with a tired sigh and pressed her palms to her eyes, rubbing the last bits of drowsiness away.

Then she slid her phone from the night stand with hopeful fingers and considered herself truly blessed when she saw Juliana's name on the screen.

     Juliana: _You_

Valentina snorted at the gif - an inflated, human-shaped tube dancing in the air.

        _Yeah yeah, very funny._

And she sent a gif of her own - Monty Python’s King Arthur, galloping without a horse. 

_You!_

     Juliana: _lol I got us to safety just like that_

        _No wonder everyone was staring_

 Juliana: _well that was probably because we looked like sea creatures_

        _Excuse me, I prefer sea chic_

     Juliana: _you pulled it off_

And Valentina’s smile grew.

“What is happening,” she said out loud.

Her day passed slowly, engulfed by a restlessness she couldn’t shake. It didn’t help that no one was around - Valentina was alone with her daydreams. What did she even used to do on weekend afternoons? Because right now all she could think about was how, if she followed their routine, she wouldn’t see Juliana until Wednesday night.

She didn’t think she could make it that long - and seriously _what the hell was happening?_

Would it be too much too soon if she asked Juliana to come over?

_Yes, idiot_ she thought.

She just couldn’t be rid of the girl. It was like she was tattooed beneath her skin, the etchings still in progress but no less permanent. It was scary how important the brunette was to her after only having known her for a few weeks.

But Valentina wouldn’t want to get her out of her head even if she could. This was such a new feeling, being so excited about something - some _one_. It permeated every part of her, flooding past skin and muscle and bone as it found a home in her very core.

Valentina made her way to the pool and stretched out on a lounge chair. The water was as still as glass, tempting her to break it, and it reminded her of last night - how she’d kissed drops of water from Juliana’s neck, how her lips had tasted, how she’d felt. It was all she could think about.

Good lord, she was useless today.

She groaned and sent Guille a text, pretty much begging him to hang out with her - she just needed a distraction and she’d be fine. He was busy, of course, but asked her if she wanted to hang with him and Renata that night.

_Thank God_ , she thought as she shaded her eyes from an onslaught of sunbeams seeping through parted clouds.

And she tried, she really did, but she couldn’t stop herself.

_What are you up to? I’m so bored. Want to come over?_

She let the phone slide from her hands into her lap, and it dropped like the pit in her stomach - there was no taking it back now.

She worried a lip between her teeth and combed her fingers through her hair, unable to sit still. Her heart skipped when the phone lit up.

     Juliana: _ugh, I wish. I’m in the studio right now working on a project._

_Obviously_ the girl had a life beyond their nights at the library, Valentina thought, even as her shoulders sank in disappointed. But then -

     Juliana: _you could come visit me if you want_

Valentina scrambled up so fast she was embarrassed by herself, and she forced her feet to slow down.

She still took the steps two at a time, though, and was short of breath when she got to her room.

She tore through her closet like a whirlwind, considering and discarding items in her search for something casual but flattering.

And when she was ready she grabbed her phone from the bed, lips turning up at the messages she found.

     Juliana: _don’t feel like you have to!_

     Juliana: _you’ll probably be bored_

     Juliana: _forget I said anything!_

        _Are you kidding! And miss seeing the artist at work?_

        _What’s the address?_

By the time Juliana responded, Valentina was already in the backseat of a car. She relayed the destination to her driver and then they were off.

She barely registered the cityscape as she stared out the window, her focus sliding. She wrung her hands together anxiously - now that she was only minutes from seeing the girl, she realized she had no idea what she was supposed to do. Because they’d kissed! And she had no clue what the other girl thought about it.

It felt as though they were teetering on a line drawn in dirt - so easily blurred. But hadn’t they already crossed it?

Valentina’s chest twinged at the thought that maybe Juliana would want to leave last night in the past, and that it would be a one-time thing. Apprehension fluttered in her stomach - because while Valentina was a confused patchwork of emotions, she did know one thing:

Kissing Juliana Valdéswas extraordinary, and she wanted to do it again.

They pulled to a stop in front of a two-story building, its front made up almost entirely of translucent glass panels. She had passed by there countless times, but had never really noticed it.

Valentina was jittery as she made her way inside - a lightness in her step that made it feel as though she were hardly moving and also walking unusually fast. Her hands were shaky as if hopped up on caffeine. She shook them as she reached the room number she’d been searching for, trying to dispel her nerves before she pushed through the door.

It was soundless on its hinges as she stepped into the well-lit space beyond. Her footsteps were made stealth by the music streaming through Juliana’s phone, so the girl didn’t hear her approach.

Juliana stood alone in the room, her back to the door. Valentina took a moment to watch her work.

She wore paint-stained overalls and one strap hung carelessly over her shoulder, resting against the bright yellow shirt beneath as Juliana regarded the canvas before her.

It was remarkable.

A seascape stretched endlessly, thick clouds hovering over a fading sun, low on the horizon. The ocean was wild - swelling in white-capped collisions, its continuous movement heedless of the weather-beaten dock stretching from the right-hand corner of the piece and out into the thrashing tide. A little girl sat atop the wood planks near the dock’s edge, wind whipping through her brown curls, untamed like the ocean. She hugged her knees to her chest and gazed into the distance where water met sky, her face hidden from view.

Juliana considered the spectrum of colors on her palette and then grabbed a painting knife, mixing a new shade.

Her brush moved along the water crashing into the dock, adding touches here and there.

As the image continued to take shape, Valentina was in awe. Everything about it was textured into a place so real that Valentina felt as if she could step right through the canvas like a portal.

She waited until the brush dropped back down to Juliana’s side before she said, “Excuse me, miss.”

Juliana whipped around, hand going to her chest. “You scared me,” she huffed as her shock dissolved into a smile so dazzling it was like sunshine walked into the room.

Valentina laughed and pulled the girl in for a hug. “Sorry,” she mumbled, forehead pressed to her neck. “You were so focused I think I would have scared you no matter what.”

“Uh huh,” Juliana said, knowing damn well that Valentina enjoyed sneaking up on her.

“I feel like I ought to give you a beret.”

“You are the worst,” she said, but her eyes twinkled.

Valentina stepped away to take a closer look at the painting. “This is gorgeous,” she observed, fingers hovering over the wet paint as if she might feel a salty breeze lace through them, feel the ocean spray.

“Thank you,” Juliana said lowly, and when Valentina turned her head, she found the girl already staring at her. And it knocked the air from her lungs, because Juliana looked at her like she was also staring at a masterpiece.

Valentina glanced away purposefully. If Juliana kept this up, she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions.

“So,” she shoved her hands into her back pockets, just to give them something to do. Because Juliana’s hair was in an adorably loose ponytail, and some tendrils hung down to frame her face in a way that made Valentina want to run her fingers through them. “What was your inspiration for this one?”

Juliana hummed, a faraway look in her eyes. “I fell off a dock like this when I was a kid - before I could swim, obviously. Just tumbled right in, head first.”

“Oh no,” Valentina lamented. “I mean, everything clearly turned out okay but still - oh, no!”

Juliana chuckled. “Yeah, I was leaning out to see a fish or something, I don’t know. Thankfully my parents were close, and my dad pulled me out by my foot. Apparently I was just bobbing there upside down like an apple.”

Valentina hid a smile behind her hand, but it faded as Juliana’s expression turned bittersweet at the memory, shadows swimming in her eyes. She said, “I was so scared of the ocean for so long - partly because it was traumatic but also because of my dad’s reaction. He was so _mad_.”

Valentina’s brows knitted in concern.

“But it wasn’t like his normal mad, it was something more - like he was scared. That’s really the only time…” she trailed off, but Valentina read the unspoken words as they flashed across her face.

That was one of the only moments she saw her father _care_.

Valentina slipped their fingers together, thumb stroking soothingly against the back of Juliana’s hand.

Juliana cleared her throat and gestured to the painting. “I guess this is acknowledging all of that fear and letting it go. There’s beauty in letting things go, don’t you think?”

“Of course,” Valentina murmured. “Especially when they’re heavy.”

She gave Juliana an understanding smile and let herself brush the dark curls away from her face in silent comfort.

Juliana’s eyes glistened, and she looked down to hide it. “I’m sorry I keep talking about these sad things,” she said to the ground. “I swear I’m not normally like this.”

Valentina took Juliana's chin in her hand and tilted her head back up, thumb tracing her jaw. “Hey, never apologize to me for that. You can tell me anything. I’ll always listen.”

And she hoped Juliana could see her sincerity. If she accomplished nothing else in life besides being here for this girl who’d gone through so much - who had such a difficult time letting people in to truly see her - it would be enough.

Juliana nodded.

And wanting to make the girl more comfortable, wanting to connect, Valentina offered: “I know it’s not the same, but my dad isn’t the most, uh, present, either.”

Juliana tilted her head in question.

“My mom died when I was young, and he was never really the same after that. Just kind of threw himself into work. He loves us, but,” Valentina shrugged, “he’s definitely more of a businessman than anything else.”

Sadness clouded Juliana’s features as she brought a hand to Valentina’s face, the backs of her fingers stroking gently down her cheek.

The girl looked absolutely gutted, like she had adopted Valentina’s pain as her own, and Valentina immediately wanted to take it all back. She never meant to make this about her. “I’m so sorry,” Juliana said.

Valentina tried to make light of it. “It’s okay, it’s just how things are.”

“Doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

A brief silence fell. Suddenly it was all too much.

“You know,” Valentina said, and Juliana raised a brow at her cheerful tone. “I have to tell you, I’m so relieved to be seeing you during the day. I was beginning to think you were a vampire.”

Juliana brightened and retreated a step, understanding Valentina’s need to change the subject. “I could say the same about you - wandering into the library at all hours of the night.”

“I told you, I only come for the drinks.”

“Yeah, you’re not helping your case…”

Valentina scoffed.

“Plus,” Juliana deadpanned, “out of the two of us, it seems like you’re the one with a thing for necks.” And she blushed as she said it, but her eyes flashed rakishly.

Valentina’s jaw dropped, incredulous. Heat bloomed across her whole freaking body as she remembered the feel of the brunette’s skin against her lips, her frantic pulse as Valentina kissed her way down to the base of her throat.

An exasperated sound escaped her. The _nerve_ of this girl - the complete disregard for Valentina’s sanity!

Juliana smirked as Valentina tripped over her words, and it was the last straw.

Valentina pursed her lips and grabbed the nearest paintbrush, saturated in blue. She slopped it onto Juliana’s face unapologetically, dragging it from the bottom of her eye to her jaw, a vibrant tear down her cheek.

Juliana’s mouth fell open in disbelief.

Then, “Oh, you’re dead.”

They both lunged to arm themselves at the same time, snatching wet brushes and tubes of paint, and then the battle was on. Both were relentless in their attacks and scrappy in their defenses - giving chase and dodging, landing blows and darting away to barricade themselves behind tables.

Finally Juliana had Valentina backed into a corner, and she managed to grab the taller girl’s wrist as she tried to barrel past her, pulling her close to smear an entire multi-colored palm down Valentina’s face. An easel went clattering to the ground, and the girls paused, their eyes saucer-wide.

Then they were in stitches, pointing at arms and hands and ears covered in spattered chaos.

“We’re a mess,” Juliana said as she began to move around the room, straightening easels and pushing haphazard stools back under tables.

“Well, we could always hop back in the fountain,” Valentina suggested as she gathered their discarded paint tubes.

“That worked out so well last time,” Juliana grinned, wetting a paper towel at the sink and bending down to wipe some drips from the linoleum.

“Speaking of fountains, what did you wish for?”

“Tacos.”

Valentina narrowed her eyes. “I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

“You can keep trying,” she said as she made her way back, “but it’s not going to happen.”

She drifted closer to Valentina, reaching out to gently pick some paint-stuck strands of hair from her face and brush them away. Her nose scrunched apologetically when she ended up spreading more paint over Valentina’s scalp.

Not that Valentina minded - she would let Juliana dump an entire paintcan over her head if it ended with the girl smoothing her fingers through her hair.

“Oh no,” Juliana said suddenly. “Your shirt...”

Valentina glanced at the blotches of color riddled across her front and shrugged. “I like it better this way.”

But Juliana looked genuinely upset. “I’m sorry. I can get you another - ”

“No, really,” she cut in. “This shirt was boring and now it’s not. I’m going to wear it all the time.”

Juliana looked doubtful.

“Seriously,” Valentina said, holding the girl’s shoulders and giving her a little shake. “It’s high fashion. Plus, I started it,” she reasoned, diverting the blame to herself. “Though, you definitely finished it,” she joked and was thrilled by the smile it won her.

Valentina guessed she’d said the right things, because Juliana’s expression softened. In the stillness of the moment, her gaze swept over Valentina’s face, searching - and Valentina held her breath, unsure what the brunette was looking for but wanting to give it anyway.

Energy rippled through the air between them, and Juliana hesitated an instant before she shifted nearer. Her eyes gleamed with unspoken promise as she pressed her forehead to Valentina’s, noses brushing. She ghosted her fingers up Valentina’s arms, leaving a trail of goosebumps, and her lips quirked when Valentina shivered at the touch.

Valentina licked her lips in anticipation, ignoring the the grittiness of the paint she found there, and then Juliana’s mouth was on hers.

The kiss lit her up, sure and bright. It was gentle and unrushed, like the warmth of spring stirring a world made new.

A tremulous hand came to rest on Valentina’s lower back, keeping her grounded, and she could feel the heat of it through her shirt.

It was over far too quickly, Valentina chasing Juliana’s lips as the girl drew back just enough to look at her. And Valentina found that this was a bottomless kind of yearning.

Valentina blinked slowly, collecting herself. “What are we doing,” she asked, breathlessly.

“I don’t know,” Juliana whispered. And then, just as quietly: “But I don’t want to stop.”

Her nervous eyes met Valentina’s, and the taller girl was quick to ease her worry.

She smiled, and a quiver in her bottom lip exposed her own tangle of emotions. “I don’t either. And maybe,” she said, drawing that lip briefly into her mouth, “maybe that’s all we need to know, for now.”

“Okay,” Juliana breathed, the relief clear in her voice as she folded her arms around Valentina and held her close. Valentina could feel the brunette’s racing heart against her chest, and she smiled into her hair, glad to know her own wasn’t alone in its frenzy.

“I don’t think I’m going to get anything else done today,” Juliana mumbled into Valentina’s shoulder, and they laughed against each other before easing away.

“I can walk you home?”

And this time Juliana didn’t protest, just nodded shyly. “Give me a minute.”

She washed her paintbrushes in the sink and then scooped her supplies into a bag. She picked up her project and stored it in a room off to the side that Valentina had thought was a supply closet.

After they surveyed the studio one last time to make sure they weren’t leaving any mess, Juliana flicked off the lights and they headed outside.

They walked together, fresh air whistling around them, and Valentina threw her arm around the brunette’s shoulders in a way she hoped was casual. Her heart leapt when Juliana reached up to hold her dangling hand.

The walk was entirely too short, and as they reached Juliana’s door Valentina didn’t want to say goodbye.

So she invited the brunette to go out with her, Guille, and Renata that night.

“You can totally say no if I’m, like, overwhelming you,” she added as an afterthought. “But it’ll be fun!”

“No, I’d love to come,” Juliana said, and Valentina honest to God did a little happy jump before she could stop herself.

Juliana looked charmed by it, so it wasn’t all bad, but Valentina decided it was time to leave before she did anything else embarrassing.

She told Juliana they’d pick her up later, and she wanted to kiss her again but chickened out and settled for a peck on the cheek.

“Okay, I’m going,” she said, backing away.

And as she strolled back down the stairs, eager for the night ahead, she wondered if she’d be able to get all of the paint out of her hair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Double datin'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends! Sorry you had to wait a bit longer for this one. The house my girlfriend and I were temporarily living in got infested by mice and we legit had to flee and find somewhere else to live...for real, it was like something out of a horror film. What is life 🤣 
> 
> Anyway! Thank you for all of the love you continue to give this story. I so enjoy reading your comments & talking on tumblr and stuff. You're all wonderful ❤️
> 
> Sorry for any errors, I only read through it once.

“What’s that,” Guille asked, pointing behind Valentina’s ear as she and Renata passed through the door he held open for them.

She knew what it was before she brought her fingers there, but touching the dry paint made her pulse flutter as it remembered the way Juliana made her feel that afternoon - like every inch of Valentina had been dipped in color, a vibrant warmth swirling through her and changing her like dye.

She cursed under her breath and scratched until the residue flaked from her skin.

“It’s nothing,” she said evenly as they walked to the car. “Just a bit of paint.”

She turned to Renata, hoping to change the subject, but Guille frowned in bewilderment. “Since when do you paint?”

Valentina crossed her arms, the leather of her jacket creaking. “I don’t tell you everything.”

He raised a meddlesome brow, spurred by her evasiveness. “Obviously not.”

“Leave her alone,” Renata said, amused by the pair, and Guille smiled at her fondly.

Alirio opened the back door of the SUV and the girls climbed in, Guille taking the passenger seat.

“Where to,” Alirio asked, and Valentina gave him Juliana’s address, breathing slowly to calm her nerves.

She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and tried to act normally, laughing along with Guille and Renata without really listening to the conversation.

Why had she thought this would be a good idea? She and Juliana were still figuring out whatever it was they were doing, and now she’d added her brother and his girlfriend to the mix. And, oh God, was this a double date? Did Juliana think it was a date? Did Valentina want it to be a date?

Valentina caught Guille’s eye in the rearview mirror and he looked at her curiously, like he was trying to piece together the internal struggles written across her face. She calmed her features and stuck her tongue out at her brother, who flipped her off.

“You see,” Valentina said as Renata reached forward to give him a little smack on the head. “He’s so mean. I don’t know why you date him, really.”

Alirio’s mustache twitched at their antics, humor in his voice as he asked, “Should I just pull up here?”

Valentina had just enough time to wonder how they’d arrived so fast before all thought flew out the window. Because Juliana was outside waiting for them, and _holy shit_ she looked incredible.

“Yes, that’s her there” she managed as she raked her eyes over the girl.

Juliana was in black, high-waisted jeans that hugged the curve of her hips and a crop top that revealed just enough skin to tease at the abs underneath.

Valentina tried to swallow, her mouth suddenly dry.

And she didn’t know if she had a thing for bomber jackets or just a thing for _Juliana_ in bomber jackets - all Valentina knew was that Juliana shouldn’t be allowed to look this good.

She realized the brunette couldn’t see her through the car’s tinted windows, and she pushed open her door. “Juls! Hey, get in,” she beckoned, and Juliana lit up when she saw her.

Valentina slid to the middle seat to give her room, and Juliana hopped inside as a breeze caught her hair, rippling through it like reflections of an underwater wave and wafting her sent over Valentina, invading her senses.

Valentina looked straight ahead as Juliana settled in next to her, hands clasped together knuckle-white as she fought the impulse to dive into the brunette’s neck - to breathe in more of her.

She felt Juliana staring at the side of her head and turned to face her. The deep pools of her eyes - rich like coffee, the cause of so many sleepless nights - were flecked with uncertainty. Valentina relaxed immediately and only then noticed how stiff she’d been. She smiled sheepishly as she welcomed her properly, drawing Juliana into her for a quick hug.

“You look beautiful,” tumbled from her lips, and Juliana dipped her head at the compliment, her cheeks pinking. She looked past Valentina to the other passengers, and Guille raised a hand in greeting.

“Sorry,” Valentina said, “This is my brother, Guille, and his girlfriend, Renata. And Alirio was kind enough to drive us tonight.”

They exchanged nice-to-meet-yous, and then Valentina gave Alirio their next destination.

It was only a short drive, but there was enough time for Valentina to crumble into ruin as Juliana’s thigh brushed against hers. Apparently she wasn’t the only one craving, because Juliana shifted closer and snuck her hand down to rest on the seat in the small space between them. And Valentina’s hand was hesitant but undeterred as it found Juliana’s, nails grazing lightly over the brunette’s skin until Juliana turned her palm and laced their fingers together.

Valentina saw Juliana’s small smile reflected in the window, lit up by passing headlights as their sweaty hands flirted in the dark, unseen.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Guille and Renata went in ahead of them as Juliana reached for Valentina’s hand again, pulling the girl back and laughing.

“Seriously - tacos?”

“What do you mean? I’ve heard they’re what dreams are made of.”

Juliana shook her head, her smile wild. “You’re ridiculous.”

Valentina winked. “Maybe.”

“It took me forever to get all of that paint off, by the way,” Juliana said as she looped her arm through Valentina’s, bumping shoulders on their way inside.

“Don’t even talk to me about it,” Valentina said. “I must have used half a thing of shampoo and, like, all of my soap and I still somehow missed some.”

Juliana snickered and looked over the taller girl, searching. “Where?”

“It’s gone now, but Guille pointed it out and was so confused because I have the artistic talent of - I don’t even know - a squirrel.”

Juliana just about died at that but said she was sure Valentina couldn't be that bad, even as she wrapped her arms around her stomach in a true belly laugh. 

They spotted Renata at a table near the front - practically on the sidewalk as the restaurant’s glass, garage-like overhead doors were rolled up, opening the place to the temperate night air - and she stopped fiddling with her phone as they scraped their chairs under the table. She told them that Guille was already in line waiting to order a bunch of food for everyone, and Valentina rubbed her palms together eagerly.

“This. Place. Is. Awesome,” Juliana said, spinning in her chair to get a better look at the artwork coloring the back wall.

Valentina watched as the brunette’s eyes roamed over its entirety, lingering in places as her nostalgic grin expanded and then softened, memories of childhood washing over her. Looney Toons, Superheroes, Disney, and Pixar characters all rushed from the wall towards the customers scattered around mismatched tables, chatting and laughing and eating. The smell of chicken and pork and steak roasting on rotating spits was mouthwatering, and the meat practically slid off as the cooks sliced portions away to chop and toss onto warm tortillas, topped with cilantro.

The intentionally chaotic atmosphere didn't overwhelm, it welcomed.

“I thought you’d like it,” Valentina grinned, and Juliana looked at her so tenderly she had to look away, toying with a lock of hair.

“I’ve never been here either,” Renata said. “It makes me feel like a kid again!”

“If you had to pick one character, who’s your favorite,” Valentina asked her. 

“Easy, Mulan. She’s a badass.”

Both girls approved wholeheartedly, and Renata said they had to pick too. 

“My parents used to say I was like Tigger,” Valentina smiled, “so probably Tigger.”

“Oh my God, I can totally see that,” Juliana said. “You have this energy and you kinda just...bop through life.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Valentina said, eyes squinting. “Your turn, Juls.”

“I used to want to be Bugs Bunny,” she said. “No, like, I really wanted to be him. I made my mom get me really big carrots so I could do the _what’s up, doc_ thing.”

As Renata _awwe_ d across the table, Valentina tried not to die from cuteness overload. “That is my favorite story and nothing will top it ever.”

“I also used to wear bunny ears all the time. I had one of those headbands,” Juliana said, rubbing her forehead bashfully.

“Why are you so cute,” Valentina said, reaching out and smooshing Juliana’s cheeks until her smile was scrunched between her palms.

They were all in stitches when Guille joined them, and a smile tugged at his lips, their joy infectious.

“The food should be here soon. I got some of everything.” He set four beers on the table and slid one to each of them.

“Oh, no thank you,” Juliana said. “I’m sorry, I’m not much of a beer person.”

“I should have asked,” Guille apologized. “I can get you something else.”

“That’s okay, I’m just going to get a water -”

“I got it,” he cut in, and stood. “Look, I’m already up!”

“Is your entire family charming, or what,” Juliana whispered to Valentina, who just scrunched her nose in response.

“Wait, get me one too,” Valentina shouted to Guille’s back, sliding her beer next to his. “What,” she said when he turned to look at her. “I’m not in the mood to drink tonight.”

It was clear that this would never have occurred to him, but he shrugged and went to the counter.

“More for us, I guess,” Renata said, and she took a deep pull from her bottle.

Valentina smiled. “Get it, girl.”

“Val,” Juliana said lowly, so only she could hear. “You don’t have to not drink because of me.”

“I’m just not feeling it tonight.”

“Okay, but you know you _can_ \- ”

“I do,” Valentina said, giving Juliana’s knee a reassuring squeeze under the table.

Guille returned at the same time the food arrived, and they all dug in, drizzling lime over the meat and laughing as half of the contents in Renata's taco fell out after her first bite.

“There’s so much,” Renata said, looking over the trays of food strewn across the table. “How will we finish it all?”

“By trying our best,” Guille said. “Let’s do this, ladies.”

When the tacos had been demolished and the girls collapsed into backs of their chairs, holding their full stomachs, Guille grabbed the last bit of food from Renata’s plate.

“You’re like a bottomless pit,” Renata groaned. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“Just lucky I guess,” he quipped.

“I should have worn stretchier pants,” Juliana said. And Valentina stopped herself from commenting on just how good those pants looked.

“So, Juliana,” Guille said, crumpling his napkin and tossing it onto a tray. “What’s your story? How did you and Vale meet?”

“We met at the library.”

Guille’s eyes flashed thoughtfully. “Are you there as much as this one is,” he asked, jabbing a thumb in Valentina’s direction. And Valentina felt as if the room was getting smaller, because the question was calculated as if he already knew the answer.

“I’m there a lot, yeah. But not because I’m as good of a student - I work there.”

Guille’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he glanced pointedly at Valentina. She avoided his stare and grabbed her water, trying to act unaffected.

“I’m sure you’re a great student,” he said. “What are you studying?”

“Art, mainly. But -”

Guille shot Valentina a shit-eating grin, like he’d just discovered the secret to life itself, and Valentina choked on a mouthful of water. She swallowed quickly to stop herself from spewing everywhere, grimacing as the liquid was forced roughly down her throat. It felt like she’d chugged ping pong balls.

She coughed and Juliana clapped her on the back, hand remaining to rub soothingly between her shoulder blades.

“I’m good,” Valentina rasped, clearing her throat.

“Slow down, Tigger,” Renata joked, handing her a napkin. Valentina wiped the water drops from her chin, blushing furiously.

She wanted to smack the smug look right off of Guille’s face. What was he, freaking Sherlock Holmes?

But he just took a swig of beer, and Valentina was honestly surprised he didn’t give himself a self-five.

“So,” he said, “what do you guys think, should we head somewhere else or call it a night?”

“No, not yet,” Renata implored. “It’s been too long since we got together, and I’m just getting to know Juliana.” She grabbed Guille’s arm as she said, “This is actually perfect - I’ve been begging this guy to take me dancing for weeks.”

“I don’t know about _weeks_ ,” he said. He gave Renata a mock-glare that was more of a smile, and she scrunched her eyes teasingly back at him.

“You two are disgusting,” Valentina said. “Look at you, so smitten.”

Guille raised a brow as if to say _you’re one to talk_ and Valentina promptly shut up.

Renata grinned. “What do you think, girls? Are you up for it?”

Valentina looked at Juliana, and the brunette shrugged a shoulder with a quirk of her lips. _Could be fun_ her eyes said.

And Valentina didn’t want their night to end. “Yeah,” she smiled. “Let’s do it.”

Juliana looked surprised to see Alirio waiting for them out front.

“He works for my dad,” Valentina explained. She could see the cogs in the brunette’s head turning, but Juliana hid her surprise well and simply nodded.

She really had no idea who the Carvajals were, and it was refreshing. For maybe the first time in her life, Valentina had someone who saw her as she was and not for the things her family had.

Everything about Juliana and their friendship was real, and pure. And as they piled back into the car, Valentina felt the now-familiar warmth of happiness flow over her, like gentle waves kissing the shore.

* * *

The club was already busy when they arrived, but Guille was able to reserve a VIP booth.

Again, Juliana didn’t say anything, but she looked a bit uncomfortable at the extravagance.

Valentina walked slowly, intentionally falling behind Guille and Renata before she raised her voice above the blaring music to ask, “Everything okay?”

Juliana nodded. Then, “I can help chip in for the table."

Valentina shook her head and squeezed Juliana’s hand. “That's not necessary, we’ve got it.”

“You paid for dinner, too…”

Valentina's brows knitted at the girl's unease, because she really wasn’t used to people _not_ expecting her to pay for things. “I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable,” she said.

“I just don’t want you to think you have to buy me things,” Juliana said, and there was something in her voice - a pride stemming from a life that Valentina was still learning about. 

“We don’t have to stay,” Valentina said, worried that she’d truly offended the girl.

But then Juliana softened. She tucked a lock of hair behind Valentina’s ear and said, “I’m sorry. Tonight has been amazing, really. I’m just not used to this stuff and I freaked out a bit.”

“And Guille and I - we just like to treat our friends to things - but I promise next time I’ll ask first.”

“Okay,” Juliana said.

“Okay.” And then Valentina tugged her through a wall of people until the crowd thinned by a roped-off area.

Guille and Renata were already cozied up in their booth and sipping on bubbly, an open bottle of champagne on ice on the table. There were empty flutes for Valentina and Juliana as well, along with chilled bottles of water and coke.

And Valentina appreciated her brother. He'd taken the pressure to drink away, offering alternatives without making it a thing.

“There you are,” Guille yelled over the bass when he saw them.

Renata must have picked up on Juliana’s discomfort earlier, because she leaned over Valentina as they slid into the booth to tell her: “I’m not used to this either - but these two just love to spoil us.”

She smiled in understanding, and the remaining tension in Juliana’s shoulders melted away.

Valentina shot Renata a grateful look and grabbed two cokes, offering one to Juliana. The brunette took it and then clinked their bottles together, eyes smiling as she took a sip.

Valentina swallowed at the way Juliana licked the sugar from her lips.

The beat changed as the DJ transitioned to a new song, and Renata bounced in her seat excitedly. “Oh, I love this one! Come on, we have to dance,” she said as she pushed Guille out of the booth and grabbed his arm, leading him to the dance floor.

“I guess we’ll see you later,” he called over his shoulder, laughing as she pulled him along.

Valentina and Juliana sat a while in comfortable silence, watching as people moved around each other - some dancers smooth and confident, others clumsy and overthinking their steps, some too drunk already, others teasing potential partners with suggestive smiles. Some were straight-up simulating sex.

Valentina noticed Juliana’s foot tap to the rhythm, and she knew it was coming before the brunette turned to look at her. “I think we should get out there!”

All Valentina could do was nod as Juliana took her hand and led her out into the sea of people, carving out a space for them.

The way Juliana danced stopped Valentina in her tracks - because the grace in her movements looked as effortless as breathing. The sway of her hips, the confident set of her lips, the way she ran a hand through her hair and then down her body - everything about her was fluid like poetry, as if she were the one controlling the rhythm and not the other way around.

Juliana looked at Valentina standing there, like her feet were suctioned in mud, and she and sashayed over and put her hands on Valentina’s hips. “Do you not like dancing,” Juliana spoke into her ear, her lips brushing the skin there and making Valentina’s heart jump wildly.

“It’s a lot harder to do sober,” Valentina said, and she felt the breath of Juliana’s laugh against her neck.

“Don’t think so much,” the brunette said, pulling back with a roguish smirk. The fingers on Valentina’s hips tightened and then moved with the beat, enticing Valentina to follow. Her body seemed too lanky, too clumsy, and she wasn’t used to feeling like this - usually so at home in her skin.

But little by little she felt herself thawing in the face of Juliana’s fire, and she wrapped her arms around the brunette’s neck, letting her lead.

And Juliana looked so in her element and so thrilled to be sharing this moment with the uncoordinated mess in her hands, that soon Valentina forgot herself and just enjoyed the view.

The way Juliana looked at her made her feel seen, and really, Valentina would follow her anywhere.

She took Valentina’s hand from around her neck and spun her before pulling her closer, hips pressing together, the sensation making her inhale sharply. Their faces were so close that Valentina could count each eyelash.

If she were braver, she would tangle her fingers in Juliana's hair and taste the lips she'd been staring at all night. Her jaw went slack at the thought, but as she gathered her nerve someone tumbled into her from behind, sloshing a drink down her back and making her jump in surprise.

Juliana stepped back and took Valentina with her. A drunk apology was slurred into Valentina's ear, much too close, and Juliana frowned, reaching past her to shove him away.

“You okay,” she asked, and Valentina nodded. “It’s hot, want to take a break?”

Valentina linked their fingers together in answer, leading her back to the table.

“That’s two shirts ruined today,” Juliana said, lips pressed together in a half smile.

“It was my fault for wearing white,” Valentina said, pulling the fabric of her blouse to examine the cranberry juice spreading in blotches.

"At least he didn't ruin your jacket," Juliana said, blushing.

Valentina's stomach flipped. "You like the jacket, huh?" 

And she silently congratulated herself for her good life choices. 

Guille and Renata must have seen them through the fray, because they stumbled out just then, laughing at a new memory made.

“I’m going to go find the bathroom real quick,” Juliana said, and before Valentina could offer to accompany her, Renata jumped in.

“Oh, I’ll go with you! Lots of champagne,” she giggled. “Should we hop there, Bugs?”

Juliana snorted and led her away by the elbow.

“So,” Guille plopped into the booth next to his sister. “What’s going on there?” He gestured to Juliana’s back as the two girls were swallowed up by the sea of gyrating bodies.

Valentina’s heart lurched, but she kept her face neutral.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“So, you don’t have a crush on Juliana,” he said, straight-faced like a dare.

Valentina was at a loss for words as she searched for the right ones to lead her out of this situation. She tried to deny it but couldn't. Because avoiding the subject was one thing, but when asked directly, lying would feel like a betrayal - to Juliana and to every moment they’d shared.

Valentina wouldn't do it - she wouldn't dismiss or minimize the fact that Juliana somehow felt more a part of her than anyone else.

But she still couldn’t form the words.

And Guille must have understood, must have seen the tempest in her eyes, because all of his mischief faded to encouragement - a source of strength.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey - it’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry I was an asshole - if I embarrassed you.”

“You’re always an asshole,” Valentina said through a watery smile.

Guille’s lips twitched, but he continued: “Just so you know, if there _is_ something going on between you two, I think it’s incredible and you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. And you have nothing to fear from me. I’m just happy to see you so happy.”

Valentina’s eyes widened at that.

“You’re not exactly subtle...it’s obvious she means a lot to you. I just want you to know that when, or if, you want to talk about it, I’m around. And I love you.”

Valentina’s eyes welled, and a strangled laugh bubbled its way up her throat. The moment was heavy with fear and relief and love, and it felt monumental and absurd all at once, because Guille had to practically yell the whole time to be heard above the music, but they were the loveliest words.

She pulled her brother into a fierce hug, spilling everything she couldn't say yet into the embrace. And Guille just kept repeating _it’s okay_  again and again until she moved away.

“God, I’m a mess,” she said, wiping the corners of her eyes with her thumbs.

“Yeah, you snotted all over me” he said with a disgusted face.

“Shut up."

And, just like that, everything fell back into place.

But it felt better. Definitely better.

Then Renata popped up, oblivious to the situation.

“It’s crazy out there,” she said, out of breath. She fanned herself with her hand as she sank into the booth, half on top of Guille, who immediately wrapped a steadying arm around her. “I swear, I had to fight my way back.”

“My fearless warrior,” Guille said, kissing her forehead.

“Where’s Juliana,” Valentina asked, neck craning in the direction Renata had just come from.

“She ran into someone she knew and wanted to catch up with him for a bit.”

And something about the way she said it, the implication in her tone, left a sour taste in Valentina’s mouth.

“Okay,” she said, chewing the inside of a cheek. “Um. Where were they? I’ll go say hi.”

Renata pointed in a general direction and Valentina left, ignoring Guille’s perceptive gaze.

Renata wasn’t exaggerating - trying to move through the club was painstakingly slow. As she inched through the ever-multiplying, booze-soaked horde, it reminded Valentina of Hydra - cut off one head and two take its place.

Finally, she spotted Juliana through a narrow gap in the chaos. And the freaking embodiment of tall dark and handsome had a hand on her arm, and when he leaned in close to say something, both of them laughed like he was the funniest person on earth.

Valentina’s chest tightened in insecurity, and jealousy took advantage of the vulnerability and rolled through her, twisting in her gut.

Her hands balled at her sides, trying to pull the unpleasantness from her heart to the crescent-moon indents dug into her palms.

Then, for the second time that night, someone careened into her and almost knocked her off balance. A hand shot out to steady her, and an apology was thrown into the suffocating air around them. And Valentina was so _done._

She spun to give the person a piece of her mind but found Sergio, the words deflating on her lips in one big exhale.

His face split into a toothy grin and his eyes, hazy with drink, widened as he regarded Valentina like she’d just dropped from the sky.

“Valentinaaaaa,” he shouted, and then his arms arms folded around her in a sweaty, bone-crushing hello.

“I didn’t think you were coming,” he said when he pulled away, giving her shoulders an excited shake.

“Wait,” she said, looking around him. “Is Lucho here?”

“Somewhere. I can find him -”

“No! Don’t.”

He shrugged. “Okay, forget that guy! I’m so happy. Valentina, my friend, can I have this dance?” And he held out a hand and tried to bow but almost knocked their heads together.

“You’re an idiot,” she laughed.

“No - I will show you my moves - look.”

And then one hand was on the small of her back, the other grabbing hers to extend their joined arms in front of them. He spun her around in a weird waltz-swing mess of limbs, and clubbers tried to get away from their outstretched arms as they rotated manically like a possessed ceiling fan.

They were both stepping on each others’ toes, and Valentina seriously couldn't with him.

Her forehead dropped to his shoulder, overwhelmed. “Sergio, you’re awful.”

And he held her at arm’s length, head inclining towards hers as if revealing a secret.

“I’m the best,” he said with a lopsided grin, winking with both eyes.

Valentina grinned, catching a familiar face as she did. Her gaze snapped to rest on Juliana, and her smile faded. Juliana looked upset, brow furrowed in confusion and lips pursed. And when their eyes locked, Valentina saw something like resignation pass over the brunette’s features. Juliana looked so small all of a sudden as she raised her chin in acknowledgement and then spun on her heel, squeezing past a mob of people and out of sight.

“Wait, Juls,” Valentina called, even though she knew the girl wouldn’t hear.

She pushed away from Sergio and took off after her.

But how was she supposed to find anyone in this hell hole? Her throat was tight with worry as she tried to close the gap between them - dodging creeping hands and leering eyes.

Then she saw a gorgeous sweep hair, almost raven in the dark club, and Valentina barreled through the short distance between them like an American football player.

She grabbed Juliana’s arm, and the girl whipped around looking ready to pummel someone. Her face smoothed when she saw Valentina, and the taller girl tugged her through the crowd, looking for somewhere quieter so they could talk.

She spied a hallway just ahead and pulled her there, through the door at the end and out into the fresh air. And Valentina felt she could finally _breathe_ again, if only for a moment before her lungs hitched at the guarded look on Juliana’s face.

“Juls,” Valentina murmured, her voice barely rising over the dull thump of bass vibrating through the brick of the alley. “What’s wrong, why are you upset?”

“I’m not,” she crossed her arms, hugging herself.

_Liar_ Valentina thought, tilting her head.

“Really,” Juliana sighed. “I have no reason to be upset.” And it sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Valentina. She ran a hand through her hair, gathering her thoughts. “You just - looked like you were into that guy. I didn’t want to get in the way…”

A sharp laugh snuck past Valentina’s lips, and Juliana blinked, thrown by the reaction.

“I’m sorry,” Valentina said. “I’m not making fun of you. It’s just - first, you could never _get in the way_. I want to be around you all the time, it's ridiculous. And second, Sergio is like a brother - I’ve known him forever. He was, like, a drunk mess and we were joking around…”

“Oh,” Juliana said, a huff of relief aimed at her shoes.

The corners of Valentina’s mouth quirked as she untangled Juliana’s arms, taking her hands and swinging them between the pair. “You were jealous,” she sang.

“I was not,” Juliana’s head snapped up, her lips still a thin line, but her tone light.

“Well, I was,” Valentina said.

A crease appeared between her brows. “What?”

“I saw you with some dude and had a moment,” Valentina explained.

And now it was Juliana’s turn to laugh. “He's a friend from class. And he’s gay!”

Valentina groaned and dipped her head to Juliana’s shoulder, snuggling into the base of her neck. “Well how was I supposed to know that?”

She felt the hum of Juliana’s laugh against her forehead, and she nuzzled further into her, brushing her nose against the warm skin of the brunette’s throat and leaving a kiss there.

Juliana swallowed at the intimate act, the rise and fall of her chest changing with now-shallow breaths. “Maybe I was a little jealous,” she admitted.

Valentina shifted to look at her. “I knew it!”

Juliana rolled her eyes.

“But just so you know, I’m not dating anyone else. I mean - I’m not dating anyone…” Valentina reddened.

Juliana tucked some hair behind Valentina’s ears, fingers tangling in her long locks, thumbs staying to stroke Valentina’s cheeks. “Me neither.”

And Valentina saw galaxies in her eyes - bright and beautiful and full of speckled fire. She wondered what Juliana saw reflected in hers. Did she see stars, too?

Did she see them falling for her?

Juliana crashed their lips together in the shadowed alley, one hand threaded in Valentina’s hair and the other on the back of her neck, pulling the taller girl impossibly close. A muffled whimper brimmed from Valentina’s throat, and Juliana smiled against her lips.

Valentina’s surprise shifted to hunger and she inched Juliana backwards, her hand hitting the brick wall before she pushed the brunette against it.

And they were greedy with their kisses - enthusiastic in a way that left them panting into each other.

Valentina’s hands gripped Juliana’s hips, palms sneaking up until they met the heat of her skin. And then her fingers ran along the smooth expanse of Juliana’s stomach, exploring the abs that Valentina had been thirsting after all night.

Juliana gasped and fisted a hand in Valentina’s hair, encouraging her.

And it was just them and the magic of the night - all desperate sighs and electric touches.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makin' moves

“You can say you’re happy to see me, it’s okay,” Valentina said.

Juliana hummed thoughtfully, sucking a bit of frosting from her thumb. “I mean, I’m definitely happy to see these donuts you brought…”

Valentina threw her hands in the air. “The betrayal. You’re using me for baked goods!”

A girl at a nearby table shushed them, and Valentina mouthed an apology.

Juliana shrugged a shoulder. “My love of sweets is not a secret. You should have known.”

“I should bring vegetables next time.”

“Okay, fine. I’m happy to see you.”

“How do I know that’s the truth and you’re not just saying it to get what you want?”

Juliana smirked. “That’s your problem.”

But a spark of humor in her eyes cracked the facade, and Valentina flicked some crumbs at her.

Juliana chuckled, brushing them from her shirt before she crumpled a napkin into a ball and threw it at Valentina. It hit the taller girl in the face and bounced off of her chin and into the middle of a donut, making them laugh.

There was a frustrated huff from the girl at the table, and she snapped her books shut to move across the room, giving them a pointed look.

“Sorry,” Juliana muttered as she passed.

Valentina’s eyes widened to say _look what you did!_ And Juliana smacked her in the arm.

“What,” she said through a mouthful of donut.

“You’re going to get me in trouble,” the brunette hissed, but her expression said she wouldn’t care if she did.

“Um - you’re the one throwing things. Abuse!”

“Whatever,” Juliana said, hopping down from her seat as someone approached the register.

Valentina had decided against her usual spot tonight, passing over the comfy armchair for a stool at the coffee bar on the side of the cafe, wanting to be closer to the brunette. Juliana had dragged a stool of her own behind the counter so she could sit across from Valentina, schoolwork and drinks and donuts scattered between them.

“We should probably get some work done,” Juliana said when she finished helping her customer.

“What do you call this,” Valentina said, gesturing to the schoolwork on the bar.

“Procrastinating,” Juliana said, opening a textbook.

Valentina groaned.

Juliana kept her eyes fixed on the book, not giving in to Valentina’s pout. “You didn’t have to come,” she said. “You know I have a test coming up!”

“But I knew you’d be happy to see me,” Valentina teased, and Juliana glanced up at her.

The brunette’s eyes twinkled, her lips curled. And it was all the confirmation Valentina needed.

She winked, and Juliana rolled her eyes.

“Okay,” Valentina said, relinquishing her amusement for the sake of academia. “Sorry. We’ll study.”

She clicked her pen for emphasis.

And then she watched Juliana’s eyes flit across her coursework, smiling at the crease in her brow. It was always there when the brunette studied - whether it be text, canvas, or people.

Valentina thought it was adorable. She resisted the urge to reach out and poke it.

Valentina had missed her, had missed this. She hadn’t seen Juliana for a few days, since their maybe-double-date, and her stomach flipped as she remembered the night - just as it had the other countless times she’d replayed everything in her head.

The feel of Juliana’s body against hers, their wandering hands more and more daring as the minutes passed.

The way her skin burned as Juliana’s fingers clutched her arms, her back, tugging at her shirt like she might have ripped it at the seams if they hadn’t been pulled back to reality, breathless and heavy-lidded, when Valentina’s phone refused to stop ringing.

Guille was waiting out front with their things, and a dreamy-eyed Renata threw her arms around the girls when they arrived.

“Time to go, I think,” Guille said as Renata sank further into them.

Valentina had walked Juliana to her door, and it somehow felt like the first date she had ever been on, even though it wasn’t technically a date at all.

The two stood there - fidgety and unsure what to do with their hands, as if they hadn’t been all over each other minutes ago - before meeting in a clumsy hug.

But then Juliana hesitated, eyes fixed on Valentina’s through the partially-closed door, before she threw it back open and flung her arms around the taller girl’s neck, stealing a kiss that was over as soon as it began.

“Goodnight,” she whispered, a hushed laugh. And Valentina had practically floated back to the car.

Not a day passed without Juliana on her mind, and apparently Juliana hadn’t fared any better - the two attached to their phones when they weren’t together.

Valentina didn’t know how it was possible to be so excited just texting someone. Even Eva had noticed the way Valentina smiled at her phone - teasing her about Lucho. And Valentina just let her think it was him. She didn’t need her sister in her business when everything was still so new, so perfect. She wasn’t even sure how she’d begin to explain the situation.

Because whenever Valentina tried to think through things - whether she was bi, or gay, or pan, or any of the other labels swimming in her brain - she just felt like she was trying to put herself in a box for other people’s understanding, not her own.

When she pushed everything else aside, she could only identify herself as enchanted. She just wanted to know the girl - felt like she was meant to know her, like it was written in the stars. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

And now, after days of torturous separation - reminding her that there was a world, and people, outside of the one they’d created for themselves - Juliana was right there, just an arm’s length away.

Valentina couldn’t resist touching her - fingers pulled by a magnetism she didn’t even try to fight.

She didn’t acknowledge the movement, keeping her face tucked towards her notebook as she rested her hand on top of Juliana’s. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl look up in surprise. When Valentina didn’t meet her gaze, the brunette returned to studying. Then Juliana’s thumb brushed against hers, inviting her to stay.

If Valentina were kinder, she would leave it at that. But her fingers were on a devilish course of their own as Valentina squirmed in her seat, needing to be closer, wanting to feel more.

Always more.

She trailed along the back of Juliana’s hand, taking her time as she traced down each finger.

The highlighter in the brunette’s other hand stilled.

Valentina’s mouth twitched rakishly as she pressed into Juliana’s skin, kneading slowly. Purposefully. And Juliana took a measured breath, but it shuddered in the exhale.

“Val,” she whispered, a tepid warning.

“What,” Valentina murmured, like a dare, meeting Juliana’s eyes. She swallowed as they blazed into hers.

She turned Juliana’s hand over, massaging down her palm and over her wrist and back again, and she revelled in the way the brunette’s skin warmed at the touch, starting to sweat.

Juliana groaned suddenly, pulling her hand away. “You’re impossible,” she huffed. “You have to move.”

A flustered breath of a laugh sprang past Valentina’s lips. “What?”

“Over there,” Juliana said, pointing to Valentina’s usual spot, a safe distance away.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Don’t give me that look! You know exactly what you were doing.” Her lips stretched into a smile she tried to subdue.

Valentina held up her hands, a picture of innocence unjustly punished. “Fine, I’m going.”

She plopped herself down into the armchair dramatically, but Juliana had already returned to her textbook, ignoring her.

Valentina flipped through her notebook and told herself she’d really try to write something - or at the very least try to leave the poor girl alone. But moments later Juliana glared in her direction, an exasperated tilt of the head at Valentina’s pen, which drummed restlessly against the journal in her lap.

“Sorry,” Valentina hissed, and she was.

Juliana sighed and dropped her head onto her book, its pages crinkling under her forehead.

Valentina felt bad.

_Just write literally anything_ , she thought. She dragged her pen across the page and sank further into the seat cushions, falling back to look at the ceiling. She rolled her head to the side, chancing a look at the barista.

Her stomach bottomed out when she found the brunette was already staring at her. The way she looked at her made Valentina freeze even as her pulse spiked - a desire so undeniable Valentina felt there was a change in the tide, and she just sat there dumbly, waiting to see what came next.

Juliana reached under the counter and pulled out a _Be Back Soon_ sign, locking the register before she strode over to Valentina. She put her hands on Valentina’s shoulders as she leaned in behind her to whisper, in a low husk that made Valentina’s face flush: “Follow me.”

Valentina didn’t have to be told twice. She grabbed Juliana’s outstretched hand.

Neither girl spoke as Juliana walked them through stacks of books, a dimly-lit maze of old spines, meticulously organized and looking more and more untouched the farther back they went.

The tension grew with every step, knotting in Valentina’s stomach.

Finally, the brunette pushed open a door and ushered Valentina inside. They were swallowed by darkness for a second before Juliana switched on the light and blocked the entrance with a cart of books.

“You’re so distracting,” she breathed as she pulled Valentina in by the collar of her shirt.

Then she was everywhere, and they broke like a shattered dam - rushing over each other with quaking hands and quick lips.

Valentina moaned into her, and Juliana drew back swiftly. She threaded her fingers through the taller girl’s hair and eased her head to the side, brushing her lips along Valentina’s newly-exposed neck. “You have to be quiet.”

And Valentina could hardly breathe, let alone form words. She nodded emphatically, and Juliana smiled against her pulse point. Then she felt Juliana’s tongue on her throat, and Valentina lost whatever was left of coherent thought as heat rolled through her.

She reclaimed Juliana’s mouth, sucking on her lower lip and dragging her teeth along it, gaining a gasp of her own.

She moved back slightly, raising a brow to say _who needs to be quiet now?_

Juliana’s eyes grew impossibly darker, and she smirked as if a gauntlet had been thrown.

She crashed into Valentina - her fervent embrace a reminder that what Valentina thought she knew before Juliana was wrong.

Because _this_ was kissing.

This was everything.

Juliana pushed Valentina back until she hit a table, and the brunette broke away long enough to shove piles of books aside before she was back on her, hands on the back of Valentina’s thighs, their intention clear.

Then Valentina was sitting on the table, Juliana’s body pressed between her legs. And Valentina’s hands were in Juliana’s back pockets, pulling her more firmly into her, a pleasant tug low in her abdomen.

Juliana’s hands were under Valentina’s shirt, pushing it up to feel more of her skin, hands splayed across the expanse of her back.

Valentina wanted to tell her to just take it off. She wanted to feel Juliana everywhere.

The door opened abruptly, slamming into the cart and sending some books clattering to the ground.

Juliana scrambled away, smoothing her hair and straightening her shirt.

When had Valentina started to unbutton it?

She beckoned urgently, gesturing for Valentina to get off the table. And Valentina did, righting herself in a haze - her body still on fire, lips aching to finish what they started.

“Sorry,” Juliana called, when they were presentable. She moved the cart away from the door, and it swung open to reveal a truly miffed librarian.

Valentina tried to get her breathing under control, but she was pretty sure she looked as dishevelled as she felt.

The librarian narrowed her eyes at the pair. “Juliana, you’re not supposed to be in here.”

“Sorry,” Juliana said again, and Valentina was amazed at how collected she sounded after what they’d just been doing.

Valentina’s face burned, and she licked her lips.

“My friend is just really interested in libraries,” Juliana said. “She’s considering studying...archives. So I was just showing her around.”

“Well,” the librarian said, friendlier but skeptical, “just don’t do it again.”

She turned to Valentina. “If there’s anything you’d like to know, I’d be happy to discuss it with you.”

Juliana elbowed Valentina in the ribs. “Thank you,” Valentina blurted.

“Well, we should go,” Juliana said, and she took Valentina’s arm and steered her out of the small room, which was now significantly more touseled from their visit.

When they were far enough away to feel the crisis had been averted, they burst into nervous laughter.

“You should have seen your face,” Juliana said.

Valentina snorted. “Can you blame me? How the hell were you so calm?”

“One of us had to be!”

“Hey,” Valentina said, pulling the brunette into a narrow-aisled bookstack. She gave Juliana a sweet kiss, so unlike their frantic makeout but no less thrilling. “That was - wow.”

“Yeah,” Juliana said, sweeping a hand through her hair and looking away shyly, suddenly unable to meet Valentina’s eye.

Valentina was mesmerized by her - how one moment the brunette could be all over her, radiating confidence, and the next be unable to talk about it.

But Valentina had learned that Juliana spoke more through actions than words.

They hadn’t defined what it was they were doing, but Valentina _knew_ what Juliana felt for her.

She knew because of the way the brunette looked at her, like Valentina was something precious she wanted to keep.

She knew because of the way Juliana trusted her, sharing pieces of herself that Valentina suspected few would ever get to see.

And she knew because of the way the girl touched her, the way she kissed her, like she’d been drowning and was finally coming up for air.

Valentina knew, without words, that what she had with Juliana was the most genuine, beautiful thing she’d ever felt in her life.

And she was sure Juliana knew it, too.

Valentina cleared her throat. “Well, I wasn’t really into libraries, but now I am. Got any other hidden spots?”

“Val,” Juliana blushed. “I have to get back - I’ve already been away too long. And I have to study!”

“I know,” Valentina said, cupping her cheeks. “I was only joking. Kind of.”

“You’ll be the death of me, I swear.”

Valentina smiled, fondly.

“I’ll fail all of my classes and end up homeless.” Juliana’s eyes sparkled. “You laugh, but it’s true. Just wait and see.”

“No,” Valentina said, gently. “I’ll help you study.”

Juliana’s eyes dropped to her lips.

A pause. And then, “Okay, we have to go back now.”

Juliana slid free, inching her body out from between Valentina and the shelf at her back. She looked at the taller girl like if they didn’t go back now, she’d drag her deeper into the hidden depths of the library and continue to ravish her.

Valentina wanted nothing more.

But she followed Juliana anyway.

“All right,” Valentina said, switching to study mode when they were settled back at the coffee bar. “Let’s do this.”

“You don’t actually have to help me,” Juliana said.

Valentina brought a hand to her chest, feigning offense. “I’ll have you know that I am an excellent study partner. I’m a big deal. There are people _lining up_ to study with me.”

Juliana grinned. “I had no idea I was in the presence of such greatness.”

Valentina looked at Juliana’s stack of notecards and held out a hand, wiggling her fingers.

“Okay,” Valentina said after Juliana passed them to her. She glanced at the first few concepts and definitions, already planning on how she might fit them into a rhyme. “How do you feel about memorizing through song?”

 

* * *

 

Valentina decided that the library was her favorite place.

When she was there, the rest of the world disappeared. Because it was just her and Juliana, and Valentina didn’t care what they were doing, as long as they were together.

Juliana experimented with drinks - some quite delicious, others not so much. Valentina wanted to make her drinks, too, but the brunette shut her down every time, claiming only the most classically trained baristas could harness the power of the finicky espresso machine.

“You can’t even hold a cup without burning yourself,” she’d say. “There’s no way I’m letting you anywhere near this thing.”

They’d sit quietly, working on different things together.

Sometimes, they’d bicker. “You’ll never guess what came to my house today,” Juliana said when Valentina walked in on Thursday night. And she held up a note: _To replace the ones lost in the war._

“Okay,” Valentina said. “In my defense, I ordered those paints for you before I told you I’d ask before I bought you things. And it’s also my fault you wasted your other ones…”

Juliana narrowed her eyes in mock disapproval before pulling Valentina into an embrace, a soft _thank you_ spoken into her hair.

Their nights were filled with the scratch of pencil on parchment, the rhythmic click of a pen, the tap of laptop keys. Frustrated sighs and soft smiles. Fluttering hearts and brushing pinkies, a reminder of the first night they’d touched in a way that said _I want_ _more._

The hours spent with Juliana in the library, talking about everything and nothing, were the best of Valentina’s life. Just walking through the doors felt like coming home - a promise of respite and understanding, a refuge from the rain.

Now it was Friday, and not having anywhere to go the next day, Valentina couldn’t bring herself to leave.

“You’re crazy,” Juliana said, flipping over a flashcard and adding it to the back of the pile.

And Valentina wanted to say _for you_ but bit her tongue. She shrugged a shoulder instead and continued to scroll through her phone. “I’m just not tired yet, and I don’t feel like moving,” she said, even as her eyes prickled with exhaustion.

“Liar,” Juliana said.

“No, really. Moving is, like, really low on my list of priorities.”

Juliana shook her head, affectionately.

This was the first time Valentina had stayed until the end of Juliana’s shift, and she was determined to walk her home.

A drowsy sun peeked its way through the library windows, casting the space in a cozy, orange-sorbet haze as the night bowed to the dawn in a graceful farewell.

“Okay,” Juliana said as Valentina’s eyelids started to droop. She jerked her head up to find Juliana standing before her, smiling tenderly and holding out a hand. “We’re good, we can go.”

Valentina curled her fingers around the brunette’s palm, and she pulled her up. Juliana nodded to the barista taking her place, and Valentina recognized him from those first few days when she was still trying to find her mystery girl.

They walked together out into a new day.

“So,” Valentina said, loving the way Juliana looped their arms together automatically - the normalcy of it all. “What do you usually do after work? I could take you to breakfast?”

Juliana laughed. “As nice as that sounds, you’re dead on your feet right now.”

“I am not,” Valentina said, even as she leaned sleepily into the girl.

“I should be the one walking _you_ home, I think.”

“It’s too far,” Valentina yawned, but she smiled at the idea of having Juliana in her home. “Someone will come pick me up from your place.”

The rest of their early morning stroll was quiet, and Valentina appreciated the way Juliana looked different in the day. How the light danced across her skin, and the way her smile seemed to make the sun shine brighter.

Valentina’s car was there waiting when they arrived.

“You don’t have to walk me up,” Juliana said.

“But I wanted to.”

The brunette nudged her towards the car, opening the door and gesturing for Valentina to get inside. “Come on, get some sleep,” she said, thumbs brushing the shadows under Valentina’s eyes.

And Valentina sunk into her, nuzzling into her neck to leave a kiss there, hidden from view.

Juliana held her tighter. “Do you have plans later,” she asked.

“No,” Valentina said, pulling back to look at her. “Why?”

“I want to take you somewhere.”

Valentina’s smile split her face. “Yeah?”

“Only if you want to,” Juliana said, even though it was clear Valentina did.

“Do want.”

“Okay. I’ll text you later.”

Juliana shut the door behind her when she finally climbed into the back seat.

Valentina waved through the window as the car drove off and was asleep before they reached the next block.

 

* * *

 

“Where are we going,” Valentina asked, gripping the handrails of the too-crowded bus.

“You’ll see,” Juliana said.

Valentina had woken up not too long before Juliana suggested they meet, having well and truly passed out for a majority of the day.

Eva had cast a judgmental look her way when Valentina finally shuffled downstairs.

“Are you sick,” she’d asked, laying a palm on Valentina’s forehead, feeling for a fever. “Or are you so hungover you just didn’t bother to get up today?”

They’d gotten in a shouting match after Valentina pretty much told her to fuck off and let her live her life.  

Juliana had insisted on picking Valentina up, even though Valentina knew she didn’t have a car and was pretty sure it would take her multiple buses to get there.

And Valentina had been nervous for Juliana to see where she lived, something she’d never experienced before. She didn’t want Juliana to think she’d been hiding things. Because she hadn’t, not really - she just hadn’t been entirely up front about her family’s business.

She met Juliana out front, shifting from one foot to the other. But when she arrived, Juliana didn’t look at all surprised by the mansion and its sprawling acres - no doubt having made some assumptions after her outing with the Carvajal siblings.

She looked so happy to see her. “You have a beautiful home,” she said, simply.

And Valentina didn’t know why she had been on edge in the first place, her anxiety lifting like dandelion seeds in a breeze.

Juliana must have read the emotions on her face, because she admitted, “I Googled you.”

“Oh, no,” Valentina said, head in her hands, thinking about all of the embarrassing gossip Juliana could have found - some lies, some true. “I don’t even want to know. Do you want to come inside? I’ll give you a tour! Only, we have to avoid Eva - my sister - she’s in a mood.”

“Rain check?” Juliana laced their fingers together. “We’re racing against the sun.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

So now here they were.

“You okay,” Juliana asked, hand touching Valentina’s where it clung to the handrail - the bus driver was heavy-footed, and Valentina had almost toppled over at the first stop. 

“Mhm. Just thinking.”

Juliana didn’t pry, but Valentina told her anyway. “My dad will freak out if he finds out I’m on a bus - he’s a tad over protective. Hence all the drivers.” And Valentina wished she hadn’t said it, internally cringing and hoping she didn’t sound pretentious.

But Juliana just smiled, her eyes alight and free of judgement. “It’ll be our secret. And I’ll protect you.”

The way she said it made Valentina’s eyes drop to her lips, and she had to remind herself that they were very much not alone right now. Juliana was just so damn _suave_ sometimes, and it drove her insane.

“Okay, our stop is next,” Juliana said, and she began to fight their way to the front, hugging her bag to stop it from smacking into people as they snaked their way through.

After their feet were on solid ground and they sidestepped the too-warm cloud of bus exhaust, Valentina took in the park before them. She’d never been there before and didn’t think she had even been to this part of town.

“This way,” Juliana said, tilting her head. She led them down a paved trail that cut through a well maintained landscape, and bikers whizzed by them, zipping past the trimmed bushes lining the way. Everything smelled of freshly cut grass, and the melodies of street musicians carried on the wind to the people scattered across the lush fields on either side of the path - lounging on blankets, throwing frisbees, taking pictures.

Juliana veered off suddenly, and Valentina followed her across the lawn to the thicket at the far side.

Juliana grinned at her excitedly before she parted a curtain of branches and disappeared into the woods beyond. And Valentina was grateful Juliana had told her to wear sneakers as they traipsed through the overgrowth, weaving through mossy tree trunks and following a barely-there path of trodden ferns and weeds and twisting roots.

“Is this where you kill me,” Valentina asked.

Juliana looked over her shoulder with a devilish smirk. “Finally, you’ve caught on to my evil plan. Took you long enough.”

“Well,” Valentina said, swatting a bug away from her face, “You can’t blame me. You’re very distracting.”

“How so?”

“I mean, have you seen your face?”

“Stop it,” Juliana laughed, and Valentina smiled at the back of her head, knowing without seeing that she’d made the girl blush.

They reached a small break in the trees, and Juliana held a branch back as she motioned Valentina through. And as Valentina stepped from the shade into the late afternoon light, a smile stretched across her face, wide and free. Because they were in a secret meadow, enclosed by forest and colored with wildflowers. A stream trickled along the far side, arching out of the woodland and then weaving back in.

They stood there a moment, appreciating.

And then: “So, you’re, like, really trying to sell me on the fairytale thing, huh?”

Juliana laughed. “Is it working?”

“This is incredible,” Valentina said, spreading her arms wide to embrace it all. “It’s straight from a storybook.”

“It’s one of my favorite places” Juliana said, quietly.  

Valentina could see why. The earth was untamed here, left to flourish. It was breathtaking. And Juliana seemed so at home in the glade - she was a force of nature all on her own.

Valentina was touched she’d wanted to share this with her.

“Come on,” Juliana said, moving towards a small cluster of boulders up ahead. Valentina noticed how Juliana tried to avoid trampling the flowers and she was careful to echo her steps.

They climbed atop the biggest rock and sat, dangling their legs over the side. And then Juliana started to pull things from her bag, piling everything between them: paint and brushes, plastic palettes, and two small canvases. She handed one to Valentina.

“Wait. Are you joking?”

“You’re the one who sent me all this paint,” Juliana said. “Let’s see what you got.”

Valentina bit her lip, trying to rein in her smile. “Okay,” she said, rolling her shoulders. “Prepare to have your mind blown.”

Juliana’s eyes shined, delighted with Valentina’s cocky acceptance of the challenge.

“Looking forward to it, Picasso.”

“Only, you can’t see it until it’s done.”

“Fine.”

“You can’t rush perfection.”

“Oh my God,” Juliana laughed. “I won’t look, I swear.” She scooted over a bit and faced the opposite direction, grabbing a few tubes of paint and dabbing the colors onto her palette.

As they created, the sounds of the afternoon washed over them - the babbling water, the rustling trees, the birdsong.

“Okay,” Valentina said after a while. “I don’t mean to brag, but I think this is my best work.”

Juliana spun around, her expression eager. “Show me.”

“I don’t know if you can handle it…”

“Val,” she whined. “Let me see.”

“Okay, okay. Behold! Squirrel art.”

Valentina flipped her canvas, and Juliana practically doubled over - hands on her knees, holding herself upright as she shook with almost-silent laughter.

“I think it’s uncanny, don’t you?” And Valentina considered her handiwork - a multicolored stick figure of the brunette, her brown spaghetti-hair topped with a blob of black paint that was supposed to be a beret.

Stick-figure Juliana held a wildly disproportionate paintbrush as she looked at a blank canvas, which was propped up by an easel that Valentina had tried to recreate from her memory of the ones in the university studio. But really it just looked like a jumble of sticks.

The clouds were cartoonish cotton candy, the grass was gobs of green, the sun was an asymmetric nugget of yellow, and the stream was a skinny, snakelike stroke of blue.

“Is _this_ what you wished for?”

“Yes,” Juliana said, laughing harder. “I love it so much. You really captured my essence.”

“I’m thinking of switching majors.”

“You should,” she said. And then: “But really, can I keep it?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I want it.”

Valentina’s heart swelled. She shrugged. “Maybe. For the right price.”

Juliana raised a brow. “Oh?”

“We have to trade.” She inclined her head to the painting she hadn’t yet seen.

“Deal.”

“Also,” Valentina said, and she tapped a finger to her lips. She was surprised by her own charm as Juliana ducked her head shly and gave Valentina a soft, sweet kiss.

“Your turn,” Valentina said against her lips.

Juliana turned her canvas, and Valentina was once again awestruck by her talent. The brunette had crafted a gorgeous landscape of the meadow - its gentle beauty a lovely reminder of their day.

Valentina put her hands on the girl’s shoulders and exclaimed, “You’ve got to be kidding me! How did you do this in the same time it took me to do _this_?” She held up her canvas for emphasis, and Juliana snatched it from her, offended by the insult to her newly acquired masterpiece. “Seriously, you’re crazy,” Valentina continued. “It’s perfect.”

“It’s not,” Juliana said, modestly. “But I’m happy you like it.”

“I love it.”

They left their art on the rock to dry and went to the stream to rinse the paintbrushes.

Juliana skipped a rock and it hopped all the way to the other side, smacking against a tree trunk before flipping underwater to rest.

“I could never do that,” Valentina said, showing off her own skills. Her stone landed with a disappointing plop.

“The trick is to find the really flat ones,” Juliana said, scanning the bank and picking up a suitable candidate. “Like this one. And then you have to flick it - give it some spin, you know? You can’t just toss it sideways. Look.”

And she demonstrated. Valentina tried again without a better result, and Juliana spent most of the remaining daylight showing her how.

She jumped excitedly and threw her arms around Valentina when the taller girl managed a few slow, hesitant skips along the surface.

“See, it just takes practice,” Juliana said, and the fact that the brunette was so evidently _proud_ of Valentina for accomplishing such a little thing made Valentina’s heart soar.

“I hate to say it, but the sun is pretty low - we should probably get back before the woods get too dark. I don’t actually want to kill you.”

“Okay,” Valentina said, taking Juliana’s hand.

They took their mostly-dry artwork and traveled way back the way they came, guarding the canvases from errant branches and cradling them like treasure.

 

* * *

 

“Are you hungry,” Juliana asked when they were back on the paved path, which was now filled with significantly less people.

“Sure.”

The brunette spun them in the opposite direction, and the night-bugs quieted as the girls approached and resumed their evensong as they passed.

Valentina smelled the food trucks before she saw them, and her stomach twinged. She guessed she was hungrier than she thought.

They got hot dogs and french fries and Juliana paid, not taking no for an answer. But Valentina got the ice cream.

They stayed on their park bench well after the lamp posts flickered on - casting Juliana in a mellow glimmer that somehow made her look even more beautiful.

And they remained there, under a canopy of leaves silhouetted by the gleaming stars overhead, until Juliana glanced at her phone and straightened.

“Oh my God, when did it get so late,” she said. “I’m pretty sure the last bus will be here in a couple minutes.”

They made a break for it and caught it just in time, stumbling aboard.

Juliana was nervous when she asked Valentina if she wanted to come over for a bit, and Valentina’s nodded, overwhelmed by the thought that Juliana might be just as drawn to her, not wanting the night to end.

It was late when they arrived, and Juliana’s apartment was quiet and dark - her parents already asleep.

“Do you want anything to drink,” Juliana asked, flicking on the kitchen light. The space was warm, colored in yellows and reds with Dahlias painted along the doorframes - Valentina guessed Juliana had done that herself.

“Just water if you’re having some,” Valentina said. “I love the flowers.”

Juliana smiled proudly.

Valentina noticed the photographs on the refrigerator as Juliana pulled it open, and she recognized the brunette’s mom and stepdad from her sketches. She beamed when her eyes landed on a picture of young Juliana wearing bunny ears. She traced the photo edges with a finger. “Oh my God,” she said. “Bugs!”

Juliana chuckled and held a finger to her lips, reminding Valentina to keep it down. “I told you,” she said, setting their glasses on the counter. “I was obsessed.”

“I have the perfect place for this,” she said, gesturing to Valentina’s painting lying on the table. “It’s going right on my wall.”

“Oh, no,” Valentina said, embarrassed. “Everyone will see it!”

“How many people do you think I have in my bedroom,” Juliana deadpanned.

Valentina nudged her shoulder. “Shut up, that’s not what I meant.”

Juliana broke into a smile. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

And Valentina followed Juliana through the dark apartment until the brunette flicked on a lamp, filling her small room with muted light.

Valentina’s gaze swept over everything. The rickety table pushed against the window frame, piled with jars of brushes and pencils and charcoals and pens, paints, sketchbooks, new canvases, and more. Organized chaos.

There were some painted canvases on the floor by the table legs, leaning on the wall stacked against each other, and Valentina itched to examine them.

The armoire in the corner was open, and there were a few photos tacked against the wooden doors, along with some sticky notes - handwritten snippets of poetry and inspirational quotes, little reminders of all life had to offer.

There were books stacked under the nightstand, beaten hardbacks and creased paperbacks, well-loved and proud in their knowledge of art and psychology and storytelling - a means of escape to other worlds.

“What do you think,” Juliana asked, holding the painting up to the wall.

“Yes,” Valentina said. “It totally belongs in a room that _clearly_ belongs to an artist.”

Juliana’s eyes were soft, her smile quiet. “It does.”

And Valentina had to glance away, overcome by the way Juliana looked at her.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Juliana said, as if Valentina could hear her train of thought. She set the painting on her work table and picked up a folder. “I’ve been meaning to give this to you, but it never seemed like the right time, always seemed weird…” Valentina tilted her head curiously. “It probably still is, but whatever.”

She handed the folder to Valentina, and Valentina’s breath caught when she opened it. Because it was _her_. The portrait was of Valentina settled in her chair at the library, framed from the waist up, hand in her hair, head resting in her palm. She was beautiful in an unsuspecting, genuine, snapshot of a moment. Dressed down and honest and content. Introspective, with wonder swirling in the deep pools of her eyes.

Valentina swallowed thickly as she saw herself through Juliana’s eyes. Her own welled at the depiction - because Juliana had captured the serenity Valentina always felt there, in their place.

Because it was theirs.

“So,” Juliana said. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt as she searched Valentina’s face. “I guess now you have _two_ Juliana originals. Surpriiise,” she held up her hands in jest, unnerved by Valentina’s silence.

“When did you do this,” Valentina whispered, captivated.

“Um - it was actually in my sketchbook the night you looked through it.”

Valentina looked up in surprise.

“I was so nervous you’d find it, you have no idea. I was, like, sweating.” Juliana laughed. “It was towards the back of the book though, and I distracted you before you got to it. Like a ninja.”

Valentina grinned. “Why didn’t you want me to see it? I love it.”

“Because it was weird! I don’t know. I didn’t want you to think I was a creep.”

“I would never.”

“I know,” she said, tucking a lock of hair behind Valentina’s ear.

“I wish I could draw - to show you how I see you.”

“I already know.”

Valentina tilted her head in question.

“The way you look at me -” Juliana sighed. She cupped Valentina’s face, thumbs ghosting across her cheekbones. “No one has ever looked at me the way you do. I don’t even know -” she stopped, unsure. “I’m not sure I deserve it.”

Valentina’s heart splintered at the thought.

“You deserve everything,” she breathed, closing the distance between them. “Everything,” she said against her lips before she captured them with her own.

She poured everything into it - all of the unexplainable, profound, terrifying, incredible emotions that had flipped Valentina’s life upside down and changed it in the most beautiful of ways.

She hoped Juliana could feel it - the world trembling at their feet.

The brunette took the drawing from Valentina and dropped it to the table without breaking their kiss, wrapping her arms around Valentina’s neck and sighing into her, her body relaxing as if this is all she’d wanted to do all day.

Valentina pushed her back blindly until they fell onto the bed, its frame banging unceremoniously into the wall.

But Juliana’s head was hanging off of the foot of the bed, and the brunette moved them further down the mattress, laughing as she almost knocked their heads together.

Then they were kissing again and the butterflies in Valentina’s stomach rose, tickling through her ribs, thrumming across her heart, fluttering on her lips.

And Juliana’s lips were as soft as the rest of her.

Valentina shuddered when the brunette snuck her hands under her shirt, tracing her lower back and pulling Valentina tighter to her, their chests pressed together.

And then something changed - a shift in the air around them.

Valentina paused. The hair-raising, heart-stuttering sensation of being watched squirmed its way up her spine, and she knew what was about to happen before she looked up to the doorway.

Juliana’s mom was still as death - her unreadable, dark eyes fixed on them, her face stony.

All of the air left Valentina’s lungs, and she felt weighed down by lead and set adrift all at once. She felt Juliana stiffen beneath her.

She had only a moment - she knew that - and she dropped her face into Juliana’s neck, wishing it were enough to hide her. Her voice caught as she whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Then her mom’s voice stabbed through the quiet, shattering everything to chaos. “Juliana. Can I see you?”

And the way she spoke - the forced calm, the authoritative edge that left no room for refusal - made Valentina feel like an anvil was trapped on her chest.

She rolled off of Juliana, their breaths uneven, and she couldn’t even imagine what the other girl must be feeling.

“Yes,” Juliana said, her voice surprisingly steady. The mattress creaked as the brunette stood, and Valentina couldn’t think, couldn’t move beyond crossing her arms over her face.

She wanted to disappear.

She heard fragments of the hissed conversation down the hall - raw emotion hurled back and forth.

“You just made a mistake -”

“It wasn’t a mistake -”

“You’re confused! I have girlfriends that I love -”

“That’s not the same! I’m not confused -”

“- not natural!”

“Try to understand -”

“What did she do to you?”

“Nothing! Mom -”

“This isn’t you. What do you think people will say when -”

“I don’t care!”

“I care!”

Then Juliana was kneeling on the floor beside Valentina, easing her arms away from her face, kissing her hand. And her brown eyes were shining, but her face was set - jaw clenched, refusing to let the tears fall.

“Val,” she said, pained. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Am _I_ okay,” she choked. “Are _you_ okay? Oh my God, how did this happen?”

“Hey,” Juliana said, combing her fingers through Valentina’s hair. “Look at me. Calm down. It’s okay.”  

But nothing about this was okay. It felt like everything good had been trampled, like fresh grass underfoot.

And Valentina didn’t know what to _do._

Juliana cleared her throat. “I hate to do this, but -”

“I have to go.”

Juliana nodded, a single tear slipping its way through. She swiped it away and kissed Valentina’s temple.

Valentina could feel the brunette tremble against her, her show of strength starting to crumble.

“I need to talk with my mom,” she said, forcing a half-smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “She’s kind of losing her mind right now.”

“Okay. But you’re okay? If I leave you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be okay.” She took Valentina’s hands and pulled her up. “And I’ll talk to you tomorrow, I promise.”

“I’m so sorry,” Valentina said, lip quivering and eyes welling. Juliana ran her thumbs over her cheeks, stemming the tears before they could fall.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

She kissed Valentina’s forehead, lingering for a moment and taking a deep breath before she took her hand and walked her quickly through the apartment, almost colliding with Juliana’s step dad as he shuffled, bleary-eyed into the commotion.

“What’s going on,” he mumbled as they passed.

Juliana’s grip on Valentina’s hand tightened as they neared her mom. And the brunette held up a hand and told her to stop whatever it was she was about to say, but the woman’s eyes threw daggers at Valentina, the sentiment clear: _stay away from my daughter._

Valentina’s throat clenched. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“Tomorrow,” Juliana said at the door, and Valentina could only nod.

Juliana looked completely wrecked as her eyes swept over Valentina’s face. She squeezed Valentina’s hand one last time as her mom called for her sharply.

“Calm down,” they heard Juliana’s step dad say. “What’s all this about?”

Juliana steeled herself, all of her sadness hidden behind a resolute mask. She stole a last glance at Valentina, nodded to herself, and then the door clicked shut.

Valentina didn’t wait to hear what unfolded behind it.

She ran down the steps and stumbled into the night, keeping it together long enough to call for a car.

And then she broke, collapsing against the wall and sliding down to the sidewalk.

She wasn’t sure how long she fell apart, but then Alirio was there, gathering her up protectively and easing her into the backseat.

And then he was escorting her into the house and Lucía was there, her concerned face swimming in Valentina’s vision.

Valentina brushed past her and didn’t slow until she was in her room, the door locked.

She ignored Lucía’s worried knocking, her soothing voice that said she could fix whatever happened if Valentina would only let her in.

Valentina cried until there was nothing left, sinking into silence and letting it swallow her.

“I’m okay,” she heard herself say when Lucía returned to check on her. “I just want to sleep.”

She was exhausted in a way that consumed her - weariness clawing its way through her body, her mind, her soul.

But sleep didn’t come.

She slipped into the sweatshirt Juliana had given her the night they first kissed, and her eyes prickled at the memory.

She tugged the fabric up over her nose and drew in a deep breath. It still smelled like her.

She breathed. And she kept breathing.

And she stared at the moon-shadows on the wall, puffy eyes sliding in and out of focus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate me :(


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deep talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY I MADE YOU WAIT SO LONG! Life got in the way.   
> And I'm literally doing this on the way to Endgame so I apologize for any errors and I'll fix them later. 
> 
> But like also I'm posting this from the afterlife because of all of this photo shoot content. Kbye.

Valentina wasn’t sure if she actually slept or not. When the knocking resumed the next day, she felt more startled back into herself than pulled from any kind of rest, so she figured she’d spent the night somewhere in between.

She groaned and turned over, squinting against the sunlit morning - hating the way it clashed with the dark cloud enveloping her. She yanked a pillow over her face. Her body was stiff, and the beginnings of a headache clambered behind her brow.

But the knocks continued - persistent, yet tentative.

Worried.

And she knew she’d have to open up at some point - for the distressed investigator if not for herself.

She sighed and rolled from the mattress, shuffling her toes along the carpet. Her legs felt heavy as they plodded through the too-bright room.

Lucía’s hand was poised when the door eased open, but it sank with her relieved breath of a greeting. Valentina felt a pang of guilt as she took in the blonde’s appearance - still in her robe and free of makeup, her tired eyes hurried over Valentina to make sure the girl was still whole. Lucía looked like she hadn’t slept either.

“I’m sorry if I woke you - we wanted to let you sleep - but we’ve just been so worried. Chivis was about to climb the lattices to peek through your window…”

The shadow of a smile passed over Valentina’s lips - because Chivis _would_.

“I’m fine,” she said, voice scratchy. She pinched the bridge of her nose and then slid her fingers to her temples, trying to alleviate the pressure there.

The blonde drew her brows together, concern sprinkled in the green of her eyes. “You don’t look fine,” she said.

The tears returned, quiet as thieves, before Valentina could stop them. A guttural sound twisted through her as they dripped from her chin - something between a sob and a laugh, like the very heart of her was being torn asunder.

“Oh, Vale,” Lucía murmured. She wrapped her arms around Valentina without another word, and her hands rubbed soothingly at her back as the girl shook against her.

“Sorry,” Valentina said, pulling away. Her eyes fixed on the damp patch on Lucía’s shoulder as she wiped her face with her sleeves, trying to get herself under control. “I got your robe all wet.”

“That’s okay,” she said, reaching out to smooth her hands up and down Valentina’s arms. “Just breathe. Deep breath in - good. Just like that.”

And it helped. Valentina focused on the air filling her lungs, the way her ribs expanded before she let it all go, the way her heart pounded in her chest - strong, even now.

Valentina swallowed. “I’ll be okay, thank you. I’m sure you have other places you need to be...”

Lucía shook her head, her eyes sad. “Nope,” she said, brushing some strands of hair from Valentina’s still-wet cheeks. “I cancelled everything - none of that matters.”

Her unspoken _you do_ brought a new hiccup of emotion from Valentina.

“We don’t have to talk - we can just sit if that’s what you want - but I’d like to stay if you’ll let me. I don’t want you to be alone right now.”

Valentina sniffled and slumped back into her, trying to stem a fresh bout of tears - because Lucía didn’t have to be there, but she was. And her hushed compassion felt like a gift.

* * *

She felt a bit better after a shower. And when she slipped back into Juliana’s sweatshirt and folded a blanket around herself it was almost like she was burritoed from the world.

She didn’t want anything to eat, but Chivis had brought them coffee and toast anyway.

True to her word, Lucía remained even though Valentina showed no signs of wanting to talk. The blonde was settled in a chair by the bed, her presence a silent comfort - the only sound in the room the rustle of paper as she turned a page in her book.

Memories from last night flared behind Valentina’s eyes and she closed them tight, head jerking to shake them away. It only made the ache in her skull throb, and her mind continued to race even as her head spun.

Her stomach turned as she remembered the sensation of being watched. The panic at being discovered. The pain in Juliana’s eyes as the brunette was thrown into a moment she wasn’t ready for.

All of it had happened so fast, and it was unfair - so incredibly unfair - that the feelings they were still discovering were now being tested, being judged.

Her eyes flooded at the thought of Juliana going through it alone, and she threw an arm over her face to cover them. As terrifying as it was, she wished she could be there with her. The brunette still hadn’t contacted her, and Valentina grew more worried by the second.

She just had to know Juliana was okay - that was all. Everything else could wait.

She brought her phone up to her face, letting her thumb hover over Juliana’s name before she locked the screen again and tossed it to the foot of the bed with a desperate huff.

Lucía looked up but didn’t say anything, then returned to her book.

“Something happened,” Valentina said, voice giving way to her emotions without permission.

Lucía closed the novel, her eyes open and earnest in a way that said _you can talk to me_.

Valentina averted her gaze to the comforter as her fingers tormented a loose thread. She picked at it until it looped, until she thought she might just tear the fabric apart. Because this was it. She was going to say it out loud because she needed to - the weight of it all was too heavy, and maybe honesty would ease some of it.

Lucía wasn’t her first choice, but Guille wasn’t there and the blonde was looking at her with encouragement and sincerity and love. And it felt like the time - like the words demanded to be spoken.  

“Um,” she said, her voice quivering. “I’m not really sure where to start.”

Lucía shifted to the edge of the chair and took Valentina’s hand, calming her fidgety fingers. “Whatever it is, you can trust me.”

Valentina thought she could - hoped she could.

She took a deep breath. “I think - well, I know - I’m...in love.”

Lucía’s eyes widened a fraction. Whatever she had been expecting Valentina to say, it wasn’t that.

“Okay,” she said, processing. A small smile curled the corners of her lips, her features softening. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“It is,” Valentina said, and her face was bowed to their joined hands on the bed but her voice was sure - a reminder that yes, _of course_ it was good. Everything about Juliana was good.

She just had no clue where they stood, and Valentina was terrified because they were so not in the library anymore.

But all fairy tales came with their share of obstacles - this was scary because it _mattered_.

“The thing is,” Valentina said, “I’m in love with a girl.”

She held her breath after the words tumbled out - as they hovered in the air around them, staking claim to their space in the world.

And then her heart stopped and waited.

Valentina half expected Lucía to snatch her hand away, but the blonde moved her thumb against Valentina’s skin, encouraging her to look up. When she did, Lucía’s expression was one of understanding, of acceptance.

Valentina released the air trapped in her lungs, and it felt like some of the weight went with it - the blood in her veins jump-starting to flow easier.

Lucía smiled. “Well, in my experience, love doesn’t come around every day. So if we’re lucky enough to find it, we have to grab it.”

Valentina felt like crying again. She pulled Lucía to her in a grateful hug that the woman returned in equal measure.

But as quick as the elation came, dread stomped it out faster. Valentina jerked away. “Please - don’t tell my dad or Eva.”

“I won’t,” she promised, her face pained. Then: “Vale, I’m so sorry you’re hurting - if you’ve felt alone. I need you to know I’m always here for you. Hey,” she said, making sure to look Valentina in the eye. “Always. And if the time comes when you want to tell other people - if they don’t react the way they should - I’ll be right here.”

She put a reassuring hand on Valentina’s shoulder. “Okay?”

Valentina didn’t know how she got so lucky. She wished Juliana could have had this. “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

“But now everything might be ruined because her mom found out in, like, the worst way and she was _pissed_. And I haven’t heard from her yet.”

“You will.”

“No one has ever looked at me like that before - she hated me without even knowing me. You should have seen it,” Valentina’s heart shrank away, remembering.

Lucía scoffed as her eyes flashed. “No thanks. Don’t let me anywhere near her. I’m sorry to say it because she’s your girlfriend’s mom, but that woman needs a swift kick up the ass. Actually, I’m not sorry - she does.“

“Juliana isn’t my girlfriend.”

“Tell that to your face.” The blonde raised a brow as Valentina bit her lip to suppress a smile. “Just know that it didn’t have anything to do with you - that judgment. She needs to get her shit together.”

Valentina groaned, flopping back against the mattress. “But what if it’s over before it even had the chance to start?”

She picked at a fingernail. “I love her, but what if that’s not enough? It’s her _mom_ , you know?”

Lucía blew out a huff of air, her face tilted to the ceiling in search of wisdom. “I’m not sure I have the best advice for you...I know it’s complicated and I wish it wasn’t. But I think all you can do is be there for her and try to have faith that things will work out. Because if you love each other that’s all that should matter.”

“But it’s not.”

She shrugged. “Why not?”

Valentina fixed her with a look.

Lucía held up her hands. “Listen, Vale. You are so good and so kind, and I know you don’t want to hurt anyone. But honestly, this is no one else’s business.” She shrugged again - _fuck it_. “Own your happiness. Don’t let idiots make you cry.”

Valentina let the words sink in, biting the inside of her cheek. And as the truth of them settled, she felt them take root in her chest like seeds, sprouting and vining through her ribs, folding around her heart like armor. She looked to Lucía, and the blonde smiled.

“There it is,” she said. “See how brave you are? No one can take that from you.”

Valentina held onto the feeling and made herself believe it.

 

* * *

 

Their conversation petered off when Eva stepped into the doorway. She narrowed her eyes at their newfound silence.

“What happened,” she asked, breezing into Valentina’s room, ready to put out the fire. “Chivis said you’re going through some kind of crisis. She’s baking enough to feed the whole city.”

Valentina snorted. “I’m fine.”

Eva raised a skeptical brow and crossed her arms like she didn’t have time for this.

Valentina swung her legs off of the bed. “I’ll go tell her I’m fine!”

“No,” Eva held out a hand, blocking her path. “You’ve been acting weird for a while now. What’s going on?”

Valentina rolled her eyes. “How would you know?”

“Don’t be dramatic.”

“And you wonder why I don’t tell you things.”

Eva’s eyes were icy, and Valentina ached with the thought that over the past few years she’d seen this version of her sister more than she’d seen her smile.  

Eva steepled her fingers and held them to her lips to stop whatever jab she wanted to throw Valentina’s way. But when she spoke the words were still combative, hissing through her teeth: “You’re acting like a teenager.”

“Ex _cuse_ me?”

“Just because I’m not here all the time doesn’t mean I don’t know everything that goes on.”

Valentina had to stop herself from cackling as she dipped her head to hide the sardonic twitch of her lips. Because her sister was just so _wrong_ about that.

She didn’t know _anything_. She didn’t even know Valentina anymore.

A lump lodged itself in Valentina’s throat, because it should have been Eva - everything she’d trusted Lucía with, she wished she could have shared with her sister. Valentina should have been able to tell her anything. But their friendship from childhood was long gone, and her chest twinged with the truth that her sister was probably the last person she could confide in.

Eva bristled and started counting Valentina’s offences on her fingers. “You’re out all hours of the night, you sleep all the time when you’re home, your mood changes like the weather, and now you’re sulking like someone stole your toy -”

Valentina plastered on a smile. “Better?”

“Are you on drugs?”

Valentina did laugh, then - a bitter bark of emotion.  

Lucía stood to intervene but Eva cut her off with a cool glare. “What are you even doing here?”

“Hey,” Valentina interjected. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“I’m just trying to have a conversation with you and she’s -”

“No, you’re not.” Valentina snapped. “You’re trying to, like, manage me. But I’m not one of your employees and you’re not my mom and I’m fine. Everything is fine. So just - don’t.”

Eva looked about ready to slap her as Valentina shouldered past, retreating from her own room.

She stormed to the kitchen and wanted to grab a pillow from the couch on the way - scream into it until she was hoarse from the effort.

But her frustration faded as Chivis spun at her approach, a battered spoon whipping through the air. “My Angel,” she smiled, dropping it into a bowl. She strode to Valentina, arms outstretched as if the girl had been a recluse for days. She framed Valentina’s face with her hands, her touch gentle in its adoration.

Valentina deflated. “I’m okay, Chivis. Sorry I worried you.”

“My girl,” she said, patting her cheek like she could do no wrong. “You should eat something!”

She held out a plate of still-warm muffins, eyes crinkling expectantly.

Valentina took one. “Thank you, they smell amazing.”

“I’ll get you some juice. Sit, sit,” she said, ushering Valentina into a chair at the kitchen island.

Valentina’s phone buzzed against the granite a moment later and she grabbed it, heart in her throat. 

    Juliana: _i’m alive_

Relief flooded through her.

        _Are you okay?_

    Juliana: _i’ve been better_

       _Is there anything I can do?_

    Juliana: _can you meet me?_

       _Of course. Where?_

    Juliana: _the fountain?_

“Thanks, Chivis,” Valentina called over her shoulder, rushing off to change.

 

* * *

 

Juliana was on their bench when Valentina arrived. A sketchbook was open on her lap but the pencil was motionless in her hand, and her eyes were glossy and unfocused.

“Hi,” Valentina said, and she watched the emotions pass over the brunette’s face. The girl looked as if she wasn’t sure Valentina would actually show up, and it broke Valentina’s heart to see the uncertainty behind her eyes - the fear.

If she could, Valentina would take away all of the pain. She would make her so happy it would outweigh everything else.

She held up the gallon-sized ziplock bag Chivis made her bring - so stuffed it was barely able to close. “I come bearing muffins.”

Juliana’s gaze drifted from the bag to Valentina’s shirt and she smiled. It was a weighted, barely-there twitch of the lips, but it was something. Because Valentina had worn the paint-stained one from their afternoon at the art studio and, for a second, the good memory sparked through the bad.

Juliana’s eyes watered, and she jumped up to throw her arms around Valentina’s waist, burying her face in the taller girl’s shoulder. Valentina tossed the bag to the bench and tightened her hold, fitting their bodies together to give all of the comfort Juliana so plainly needed.

They stood there for a long while, just breathing each other in. Valentina stroked Juliana’s hair as she held her, until she felt the storm within the brunette calm.

Juliana was the first to pull away, the backs of her fingers coming up to brush Valentina’s cheeks before they slipped along her neck to her shoulder, down to her wrist as she stepped back. She brought Valentina with her to the bench and glanced at the bag of baked goods as they sat.

“You’ve been busy.”

Valentina sighed as her shoulders slumped against the backrest. “Chivis made them. I’ve been a mess.”

Juliana’s brow crumpled sympathetically, and she scooted closer until their sides pressed together. She hugged onto Valentina’s arm and laid her head on her shoulder, and Valentina’s hand rested above Juliana’s knee.

They watched the fountain - its constant trickle grounding them.

“Juls,” Valentina said finally, moving her thumb against the brunette’s leg. “It kills me that you’re hurting. What can I do?”

“I’m fine,” she said, sounding anything but.

A pause. “You don’t have to be. Not with me…”

Juliana adjusted, nuzzling further into her, and Valentina felt a tear trail down her collarbone as she did. A fresh swell of sadness rose in her, and she kissed the top of Juliana’s head.

“Just be with me,” the brunette whispered.

So they sat.

Juliana was so still that if Valentina didn’t know better, she’d think she was asleep. Valentina traced patterns into the fabric of the brunette’s jeans to let her know she was present in the moment, even in their silence.

“She doesn’t - ” Juliana started, and Valentina’s heart pinched at the break in her voice. “She doesn’t understand. And I’ve tried not to let it get to me - the things she has been saying. About me. About us. But it’s like she can’t _hear_ me. It’s like talking to a wall.”

Valentina combed her fingers through Juliana’s hair and looked skyward, willing herself to keep it together for the other girl, even as her eyes welled. Juliana was always so strong - Valentina wanted to give her this time to be vulnerable.

There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and Valentina wondered at the deep sapphire above, stretched tight like a sheet. Its tranquility was oblivious to the pain rippling through the girl beside her. And it made Valentina feel small - how the world continued to turn.

“I’m sorry,” Valentina murmured into her dark curls, because she couldn’t come up with anything better.

What did you say to someone whose heart was splintering? Valentina didn’t know. But she could be the tape - she could help Juliana hold it together.

Anger came with the thought, racing through her. Because Juliana deserved so much more than the cards she’d been dealt. Throughout her life, the brunette’s heart hadn’t been held properly - but it shined bright when others might have turned cold. It was precious. It was beautiful.

And now it was being kicked around again, and Valentina couldn’t wrap her head around the possibility that the brunette’s mother might let something like this come between them.

 _This_ \- the magic that gave Valentina honest to God butterflies. Made her happier than she’d ever been.

Nothing about this felt wrong.

She couldn’t imagine a world without their story. How empty it would be - how utterly colorless.

“It’s just,” Juliana sniffed, a hand coming up to wipe her face. “We’ve been through _so_ much, you know? For a long time it was just us. And I thought that she’d want me to be happy no matter what.”

The words sailed past Valentina’s lips, unhindered: “Are you?”

Because happiness is all she wanted for Juliana. And if everything was too much, Valentina wouldn’t be the one to cause her any more pain. She would be whatever Juliana needed, even if that meant Valentina could only be a fond memory.

She fought the bizarre urge to laugh - because she hadn’t been looking for Juliana when she found her. She hadn’t thought a love like this existed.

And now...

Juliana shifted to face her and Valentina broke a bit more, because the brunette looked so _tired -_ eyes red-rimmed and swirling with unchecked emotion. “What?”

“Are you happy?”

She gave a watery laugh. “Like, right now?”

“No,” Valentina said, gently. It was difficult to find the words - harder to say them. “I mean with...us.”

And she paused, because this was the first time either of them had spoken it into existence - that there was an _us._

Juliana’s lips parted, brow furrowing as she scanned Valentina’s face.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Valentina continued, pained. The tears began to brim, and she swept quick fingers under her wet lashes before they could fall. She forced a smile. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted that…”

She looked into Juliana’s wide eyes as they shifted from confused to heartbroken understanding.

Valentina swallowed and choked out the rest. “I don’t want to cause problems for you with your mom - ”

“Hey,” Juliana cut in, panic seeping into her features as she scrambled for the words. “Val, no. Stop apologizing and implying that you’re hurting me in any way - you didn’t do anything wrong. _We_ didn’t do anything wrong. She’s the one holding onto - I don’t even know - but she’s the one who has to make a change. Okay? Because I’m - ” 

She stopped, taking a breath. Then: “I won’t give this up. I won’t. And if that’s selfish…” She shrugged. She looked down to their joined hands, fingers playing with Valentina’s like they couldn’t bear to let go. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it,” she admitted.

Valentina’s heart jumped. When the brunette looked up again, her eyes were thick with determination. “And I don’t want to.”

The way she said it - final, like she had willed it into the laws of the universe - made Valentina slouch into the brunette’s neck as the tension coiled through her body finally eased. Hope streaked through her like a comet, warmth trailing behind like stardust.

“I don’t want to either,” she said against the brunette’s skin. And her mouth teemed with other confessions. Sweet words swirling on her tongue like syrup - promises that Valentina would hold Juliana’s heart better than anyone else ever could.

But she bit her lip, because now wasn’t the time. They weren’t ready. When she said the words she wanted them to be wild and free, not tinged with sadness.

Valentina let out a breath, and it rustled the ends of Juliana’s hair. They looked copper in the sunlight.

She made the better choice and moved away from Juliana’s neck to kiss her knuckles. “I care about you. So much. I can’t even tell you how much.”

And Juliana smiled in a way that said she already knew, but the quiet blush blooming on her cheeks let Valentina know that the girl was just as excited about their revelations.

“Hey,” Valentina said, nudging the brunette to look towards the fountain. A brother and sister stepped up to the edge with their mom as she tossed a coin into the water, showing them how. They held their own out in front of them, the glinting silver big in their tiny palms. “I wonder what they’re wishing for.”

“If they’re smart, they won’t tell you.”

Valentina shoved her, and Juliana grinned. “You’ll tell me one day.”

“At this point it’s just funnier not to. I like your shirt, by the way.”

Valentina parted her hair away from the fabric and looked down at the rainbowed smudges smeared across her front. “I thought you might. It’s the classiest one I own, so.”

Juliana eyes filled with the sparkle Valentina had so missed.

But then Valentina noticed a familiar face, and her smile faded as her chest tightened.

Juliana’s step dad was passing on the sidewalk, and his attention flicked to them before there was any chance to escape. His eyes settled on Valentina, and her stomach sank like a stone.

He headed towards them, and Valentina froze.

“What,” Juliana said as she turned to look. She sighed but gave Valentina’s arm a reassuring squeeze, trailing her hand down to tangle their fingers together. “It’s okay,” she said. “He’s okay.”

It did nothing to mute Valentina’s dread as it continued to churn beneath her skin. Her palms started to sweat.

Then he was in front of them, hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans. His smile was hesitant and he swayed a bit on his feet, like he couldn’t stand still.

“Hi,” he said, hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.

“Did she send you to spy on me,” Juliana asked, her voice prickly.

He sighed, shoulders dropping. “She’s just worried.”

Juliana rolled her eyes.

The man turned to look at Valentina, and she leaned away instinctively. It was a small movement but he noticed, and his expression shifted as he held out a careful hand.

“I almost ran into you last night, but we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Panchito. And I already know all about you, of course.”

His voice was warm and his eyes were kind as Valentina closed her fingers around his, and they crinkled at the corners when he smiled. “It’s very nice to meet you, Valentina,” he said, and she offered a cautious smile of her own.

“Look,” he said in the silence that followed. “I’m sure you already know that Lupe isn’t dealing with this in the best way. And I’ve already made my opinion perfectly clear to both Juliana and her mom, but I want you to hear it too. I support you. I’m happy for you...I’ll do everything I can to help.”

Valentina was at a loss for words as Juliana’s lips curved up. The brunette moved to hug him and Valentina stood as well, hands clasped in front of her as she regarded the pair.

Panchito’s eyes scrunched shut as he held Juliana, one hand cradling the back of her head to shield her from the world. Everything about him communicated relief - like he had just bought himself some time to fight for his daughter, to remind her she was loved.

And Valentina felt a surge of appreciation - for him and for the universe for finally doing something right. Because it had given Juliana a second father after such a disappointing first.

Valentina’s heart soared, and her smile was wide when Juliana turned to look at her. Because this moment felt a lot like a promise of better tomorrows.

She didn’t think twice about wrapping her arms around them both, and soon they were all chuckling at the way Juliana was sandwiched in the middle.

“Thank you,” Valentina said when they untangled themselves.

“Thank you for making Juliana so happy,” he said. And Valentina scrunched her nose as Juliana tried to cut him off. “Seriously, she has been like a different person.”

“Hey - ” the brunette tried again.

“Singing around the house, smiling at her phone…”

Juliana punched him in the arm and he grinned, backing away with an expression that said _you can’t hold it against me, dads are supposed to embarrass their daughters._

“Is that right,” Valentina teased.

“No!” Juliana glared at Panchito. “Do you see what you did? Look at her head, it’s growing as we speak.”

Panchito threw his head back in a laugh. “Well, then my work here is done. Valentina, it was a pleasure to meet you and to bother this one.” He jerked his thumb at Juliana. “I’m going to head back. Juli, Lupe’s just about done making dinner, and she’d really like you to be there.”

Juliana narrowed her eyes. He held up his hands. “I’m just the messenger. It’s your choice. Ladies,” he said, and waved.

When he was out of earshot, Juliana groaned. Valentina met her halfway as the girl reached to fold her arms around her. “This is exhausting.”

“I know,” Valentina said, kissing her temple.

“I guess I should get back,” she grumbled.

And Valentina fell a little deeper, because Juliana didn’t owe Lupe that kindness. She was entitled to some space after all the woman was putting her through. But of course Juliana would be there - her loyalty unwavering.

“I’ll walk you home, then,” Valentina said, beginning to gather her things. Juliana hesitated beside her, worrying a lip between her teeth.

Valentina raised a brow.

“It’s not that I don’t want you to, but what if she’s outside or something.”

Valentina’s heart sank with the realization they’d probably feel that for a long time - the impulse to hide.

But she didn’t want to think about that. She tried to lighten the mood, shrugging off her fears to assuage Juliana’s. “What, you think she’ll scare me? She’s tiny. I could take her.”

The brunette’s lips twitched. “I don’t know, we’re a scrappy family.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

And she meant it, but her expression said the choice was Juliana’s. If the brunette was uncomfortable, Valentina wouldn’t push her.

“Maybe _you’re_ the knight in shining whatever,” Juliana said, putting her arm around Valentina’s waist in answer.

“So that makes you the princess!”

“Ew - no. I take it back.”

“Too late! I’ll just call you Rapunzel from now on.”

“If anyone is Rapunzel, it’s you,” Juliana said, twirling her finger around a lock of Valentina’s hair.

And Valentina was grateful for the few blocks of respite - where everything felt like it was back to normal and that nothing could go wrong.

When they arrived, Valentina didn’t walk her upstairs. She didn’t want to create any more trouble for the brunette. But when Juliana pulled her in for a last goodbye she kissed the corner of Valentina’s mouth, and the taller girl marveled at her bravery - how the brunette continued to defy the most important person in her world.

And Juliana lingered, as if she wanted to put off reality for one more moment.

Just one more.

“It’ll be okay,” Valentina murmured into her hair. “We’ll be okay.”  

Juliana nodded against her and gave her one last squeeze. Then she backed away, squared her shoulders, and hurried into the building like if she turned around again she might never leave. 

“Bye, Rapunzel,” Valentina called.

Juliana flipped her off as the door slammed shut.

 

* * *

 

The next night, Eva stalked past her when they crossed paths in the foyer, ignoring Valentina altogether.

She spun to touch Eva’s arm. “What’s your problem?”

The older girl looked down her nose at her sister, eyes cool like pewter. “There’s no problem, I’m just respecting your wishes. You made it very clear you don’t want to speak to me.”

She withdrew without another word, heels clicking against the marble.

Valentina’s jaw dropped. “Now who’s acting childish,” she yelled to her back.

She trudged into the family room and Lucía raised a brow from the couch, swirling her wine as she flipped through a magazine.

“I’m going to need the rest of that,” Valentina huffed, pointing to the glass.

“Hey,” Lucía laughed, pulling it out of reach. “Get your own.”

She did - and then she downed the aged red like a shot.

“That seems like the right way to deal with things,” the blonde said as Valentina got up for a refill. She stopped.

“She’s infuriating,” Valentina said to the empty glass in her hands.

“You’re siblings. You’re supposed to fight.”

Valentina’s head whipped up. “Are you defending her?”

“I’m just saying.”

“But she’s always so horrible to you.”

Lucía shrugged. “She doesn’t trust me.”

“She doesn’t trust anyone but herself, that’s the issue. But you’re part of this family - she should make an effort. If Dad were here more he’d do something about it.”

If the blonde was surprised by the resentment in Valentina’s tone, she didn’t show it. “You know how important these trips are for the business,” she said, both defending and sympathizing. “Plus, I don’t need Leon to fight my battles. I can handle things.” And there was a challenge in the way she said it: _Can you?_

Valentina groaned, her stubbornness wavering. “She treats me like I’m some helpless thing she has to tolerate.”

“I’m sure it would make her sad to know you think that.”

“I doubt it.”

“How will you know if you don’t try?”

Valentina flopped back against the pillows. “You’re right,” she said after a moment. 

“Of course I am,” Lucía said, winking.

Valentina scoffed.

She wracked her brain for an olive branch she could extend to her sister.

“I can be the bigger person tomorrow,” she decided.

And Lucía rolled her eyes, but Valentina thought she looked proud.

 

* * *

 

Valentina scrolled through her phone upside down, head fuzzy as it dangled from the mattress and blood rushed to it. She wasn’t sure why she ended up in this position, but now she wanted to see how long she could stay like that before she caved.

She heard a gasp from the hallway, and then Chivis rushed in. “What are you doing, my girl,”  said. “Your face is a tomato!” She pulled at Valentina’s shoulders until she was upright. Valentina’s head swam and spots danced behind her eyes like lightening bugs.

She laughed. “Chivis, I was going for a record!”

Chivis clicked her tongue as she left, muttering something about having a heart attack.

Juliana’s name lit up her phone, and Valentina smiled. It faded when she saw the message.

    Juliana: _i have to get out of this house_

        _What happened?_

   Juliana: _we just keep talking in circles, and she’s acting like she’s sick or something…_

   Juliana: _she mopes around and takes naps and stuff_

   Juliana: _what does she expect? if she sulks enough i’ll just do whatever she wants?_

   Juliana: _i’m tired of it_  

Valentina’s heart went out to the girl and she offered the only thing she could think of to help.

       _You could always come here, if you want._

    Juliana: _tonight? it’s a monday_

       _So? Mondays are great. I love Mondays._

    Juliana: _no one loves mondays. aren’t you busy with school stuff?_

Valentina glanced at the laptop askew on her pillow. She could definitely put off her work for another night.

       _Well maybe they would if a pretty girl was coming to sleep over. And no._

    Juliana: _BOLD_

Valentina laughed, a blush returning her face to its previous tomato state.

       _Not like that!_

She bit her lip, and a nervous excitement rolled through her until she was practically bouncing on the mattress.

       _Get your mind out of the gutter!_

Valentina watched the dots appear and disappear on the screen. Then:

    Juliana: _if you’re serious i’m on my way_

    Juliana: _i’m launching myself out of the window as we speak_

She jumped from the bed in a happy dance, thankful no one was around to see.

      _Wear a helmet!_

_Kidding. I’m sending a car to get you!_

And she didn’t bother to change - just pulled on some sneakers. It felt like her feet barely touched the ground as she made her way out front to wait for the car to pull around.

“Going somewhere,” Lucía asked as they passed each other.

“Juliana is coming over,” Valentina said, breathless. She couldn’t have tamed her smile if she tried.

The blonde grinned, her eyes bright. “Oh my God,” she said, grasping Valentina’s forearm. “Can I meet her?”

It would be good for Juliana to see someone else being supportive, she thought. “Yes, but don’t be weird.”

Lucía flipped some hair behind her shoulder and pulled a face - _as if_.

The car pulled up and Valentina hurtled through the doorway, but she stopped halfway, struck with an idea.

She grabbed a handful of quartz gravel from the landscaping and shoved it in her pocket.

“And you say _I’m_ weird,” Lucía called as Valentina climbed into the SUV.

 

* * *

 

Valentina counted windows.

She knew Juliana’s bedroom faced this side of the street, and she knew her apartment was on the 4th floor. And she _thought_ the girl’s room was the 3rd window from the right but she wasn’t positive - she’d only been in there once, and she’d been focused on other things.

She let the first piece of gravel fly, figuring the worst that could happen was she’d get an earful from an annoyed tennant. It banged harshly against the windowpane and ricocheted down to the sidewalk, skidding across the cement and into the road.

Valentina cringed, lucky she hadn’t broken the glass.

She tried again, lobbing the second bit of rock with far less vigor.

She fine-tuned her technique by the fourth attempt, the fragments clipping rhythmically against the glass as Valentina made a game of it - trying to trap them on the sill.

The window scraped open suddenly, and Valentina almost hit Juliana in the face as her head popped out.

A startled sound escaped the brunette as she dodged. She leaned over the frame and looked down at Valentina, her expression shifting from shocked to charmed beneath the darkening sky.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,” Valentina called.

“Oh my God,” Juliana said, head in her hands.

“Let down your hair!

“You are the absolute worst, and I don’t know why I hang out with you,” Juliana hissed, but she laughed. “Give me a minute,” she said and the window squeaked shut.

All things considered, Valentina thought that went rather well. 

She emptied the rest of the gravel from her pocket as she rounded the building to meet Juliana out front.

Alirio looked at her curiously from the driver’s seat when she returned, and she gave him a thumbs up as she sat on the stoop to wait.

Valentina winced when she heard raised voices on the other side of the entryway, getting closer.

“So, you’re gay now,” Lupe threw like a knife.

“I don’t know, Mom,” Juliana said, an aggravated plea born from reliving the same argument.

“How will you know if you just close yourself off to men?”

“Oh my God, enough.”

“Lupe, stop this,” Panchito pleaded.

And Valentina paced by the side of the door, wanting to help but knowing she’d only make things worse. Alirio noticed her discomfort and started to open his door, but Valentina shook her head and he waited.  

“Maybe...maybe this is just your cross to bear,” Lupe said, but the words sounded doubtful as they spilled from her lips, like she was grasping at straws.

Valentina’s hands clenched into fists.

“You’re not even religious! This is garbage,” Juliana shot back. “I’m not listening to this. Let go.”

“Not until you tell me where you’re going - it’s not safe in the city at night, Juli. Stay here.”

A pause. Then, quietly: “You know where I’m going, Mom.”

The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity, and then the door creaked open, the iron heavy on its hinges.

Valentina straightened and Juliana stepped out, a backpack looped over a shoulder. Her brows knitted apologetically and Valentina shook her head, extending a hand for Juliana to take.

They had just reached the car when the apartment door opened a second time.

“Lupe, don’t - ” Panchito said.

“Juli, please. I’m sure she’s a nice girl,” Lupe said, throwing a glance at Valentina with barely contained hostility. “But this - what you’re doing - isn’t right.”

“Enough,” Panchito said, and even as he raised his voice he was gentle. “Please, my love, think about what you’re saying. It’s Juliana - ”

“I know perfectly well it’s Juliana! I know what I’m doing with my own daughter,” she spat. And Panchito’s face fell, shocked as if he’d been punched. Because the sentiment was clear, even if she didn’t mean it: Juliana was _her_ daughter.

Hers alone.  

Valentina felt the brunette stiffen beside her.

“You’re going to push everyone away,” Juliana said.

And Valentina felt a lump in her throat. Because if heartbreak had a voice, she thought it would sound an awful lot like that.

Juliana stepped forward to wrap her arms around Panchito. “I love you,” she murmured.

“Love you, kiddo. Be safe,” he said.

She took a last look at her mom, whose eyes were now filled with tears, and then she climbed into the car. Valentina shut the door behind them quickly and told Alirio to drive.

And Juliana didn’t fall apart like Valentina would have. Her jaw clenched as she swallowed down her anger, and then she let out a breath and looked to Valentina, a maelstrom swirling behind her eyes.

“I’m - ”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry,” Juliana interrupted, quietly.

Valentina snapped her mouth shut. But she was.

“Before you start beating yourself up - I don’t even think she heard the rocks. What just happened was going to happen no matter what. Okay?”

All of the fight went out of Juliana in the safety of the back seat, the city outside whizzing by unnoticed. She traced her fingers against Valentina’s face and Valentina put her hand over Juliana’s, trapping it on her cheek. A small smile tugged at the brunette’s lips. “That was very cute, by the way...dork. Thank you for coming to get me.”

And Valentina pressed her forehead to the brunette’s, nodding against it.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepover extravaganza!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoooooly crap, just under the wire for Pride (at least in my time zone)! But full disclosure, I didn't have time to edit. Sorry for the mistakes! 
> 
> A MOVIE AND A SPINOFF, YOU GUYS! 🌈🌈🌈

Valentina watched Juliana pace around the room from the foot of her bed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” the brunette said, and she sounded far away. After a moment, she threw up her hands and huffed, “What’s there to talk about? My mom hates me and now she’s taking it out on Panchito.” She crossed her arms and shrugged like her fate was written in stone. “Everything is great.” 

Valentina didn’t say anything, but she offered a half-smile when Juliana met her eye. What else could she do, besides offer understanding? 

The brunette worried a thumb to her mouth, biting at the fingernail as her gaze fixed on a nondescript patch of carpet. When she looked up again, her eyes were misty. “Did you see his face?”

Hopelessness crawled across Valentina’s skin like ash, catching in her throat as she tried to choke it down. 

She stood to take Juliana’s hand, distracting it from its anxious tic. “Your mom doesn’t hate you,” she murmured. 

Juliana swallowed thickly and looked away, and her pain weighed heavy on Valentina’s heart.

Valentina cupped her face, tracing Juliana’s cheeks like she was the most precious thing in the world.

And she was.

“How could anyone hate you,” she said as Juliana blinked away tears. 

The brunette sighed, head dropping to Valentina’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” 

Valentina balked. “For what,” she asked, combing her fingers through Juliana’s ponytail. 

“For being such a downer,” she said into the fabric of Valentina’s shirt.  

Valentina kissed the top of her head. “You’re not. I just wish there was something I could do.”

Juliana eased back, rolling her shoulders as if to shake everything off. 

“Let’s just forget about it,” she said, adopting an indifference that Valentina saw right through. “I don’t want to think about her. I just want to be here, with you.” 

Valentina understood. And it wasn’t the library, but maybe they could escape here for a while and let everything else melt away.

“We can do whatever you want,” Valentina said, taking Juliana’s hands. She grinned and let excitement push the hopeless feeling aside. “A good old fashioned sleepover.” 

Juliana’s smile was shy.

“What,” Valentina said, her own growing. 

“I’ve actually never had one before.”

A shocked laugh leapt from Valentina. Sharp and unencumbered, it cut through the lingering tension as Juliana shoved the taller girl. 

“Val, don’t make fun of me,” she said, putting some distance between them. But a smile snuck onto her pouting lips. 

“I swear I’m not,” Valentina said, eyes bright. She reached for Juliana, but the girl stepped playfully away. “I’m just excited,” Valentina said. And then, incredulous: “Never?”

Juliana made an exasperated sound. “You’re impossible.”

“No! Okay, this is going to be the best night ever,” Valentina said. “Really,” she promised when Juliana raised a skeptical brow. “We’ll do all the things!” She grabbed the girl's hand and led her in a messy twirl, the brunette’s smile too big for her face when she swung back around. 

And Valentina’s heart warmed at the sight, at the eagerness on her face - because the memories from earlier had faded like a bad dream. 

“What things?”

Valentina wracked her brain, remembering childhood sleepovers in pieces as if she were scouring a glitchy home video. She smiled as a memory swam up from its forgotten place and waved.

“Are you thirsty?”

Juliana’s forehead creased. “I guess?”

She guided the brunette from her bedroom, regaling her with stories of the concoctions she and her friends used to make when they were young.

“So, you’d just mix a bunch of stuff together and make each other drink it?”

“Yes! It was awesome. Felt like I was brewing a potion or something.” 

“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to Hogwarts.”

Valentina stopped dead on the stairs and Juliana walked right into her. “See, this is why I like you,” she said. “What house are you?”

“Slytherin.” 

“Amazing. Why?”

The brunette thought for a moment. “I want more out of life, to prove that I can be more,” she shrugged. “And growing up with my dad made me - I don’t know - he made me all about self-preservation. So I’m less trusting of people and I hide my emotions a lot. I don’t know - I think before I act. What about you?”

“Gryffindor. Because I’m charming as fuck but I can be short-tempered, and I’m actually the complete opposite of you - I act first and think later.” 

“A Slytherin and a Gryffindor,” Juliana said, eyes alight. “Maybe one of us should get re-sorted.”

“No! We’re one of a kind,” Valentina winked.

“Okay, miss ‘charming as fuck’, aren’t you supposed to make me a ‘concoction’ or something?”

Valentina grinned and skipped down the rest of the stairs. “See,” she called over her shoulder, “Look how excited you are - you can’t even wait!”

 

* * *

 

“Your house is really nice, by the way,” Juliana said as they made their way into the kitchen. “I’m not sure if I said anything when we got here…”

Valentina smiled and told her to make herself at home. “I’ll show you around more later, but for now we have important sleepover business.” She rubbed her hands together and started bustling around the kitchen.

Juliana shook her head fondly as Valentina looked through the pantry and opened and closed cabinets.  

“I don’t even know what we have,” Valentina said, shutting the spice drawer. “But anything that’s edible is fair game - feel free to look wherever.” She put two glasses on the counter and gestured. “Your cauldron.” 

“Oh my God, you shouldn’t have,” Juliana said, hand to her chest like she’d just been given a million dollars. 

“Just making wishes come true,” Valentina said. Her face lit up. “Speaking of wishes -”

“Not a chance,” Juliana said, throwing a dish towel at her. 

Valentina laughed as she caught it. “Fine, but prepare to have your mind blown because I _finally_ get to make you a drink and you’ll know what you’ve been missing.”

Juliana pulled open the refrigerator. “I like the confidence. But you know who you’re up against, right?”

Valentina waved her off. “I’m practically a mixologist.” 

The brunette snorted. “We’ll see.” 

The rules were simple: they had ten minutes to throw something together; no alcohol; they had to at least try what the other made; if either of them cheated and looked to see what ingredients the other was using, that person would have to chug the other’s creation in its entirety. 

When the timer started, it was all clanging cabinets, clinking glassware, and rattling stirring spoons.  

In their effort to avoid seeing each other’s ingredients, collisions were unavoidable. And each time they bumbled into each other, Valentina grabbed Juliana by the waist and tried to hold her back while the brunette squirmed in her grip and shouted _cheater!_

Laughter filled the room, trailing off only to come back again, and by the time the alarm chimed the girls were breathless with it. 

In the end, Valentina had put together a blend of juices, tea, and sliced fruit and had added what she thought was just enough carbonation. 

If she was being honest, she spent most of the time picking out the best flower for a garnish and trying to distract Juliana. But as she slid her concoction towards the brunette, she thought it looked damn near Instagramable. 

Juliana plunked hers down beside it with all the grace of a pirate who knew she could drink you under the table. 

Valentina eyed Juliana’s contribution and her smile fell. It looked like vomit, contrasting absurdly with the vibrant popsicle plopped in the middle. Her stomach turned. 

“What the hell is that?”

“You know, I’m not really sure. I was going for savory-sweet. It’s got a kick.” She winked at Valentina and the taller girl glared back.

“Look how nice I was to you,” Valentina said, gesturing.

“It’s very pretty,” Juliana said, and Valentina wanted to wipe the smirk right off her face. “Can you eat that, though?” The brunette pointed to the flower. “I don’t know, you may have cheated.”

Valentina pursed her lips, curbing a smile as she moved towards the girl. “It’s an edible flower.”

Juliana raised a brow at the glint in her eye, the low croon of her voice. She took several steps back as Valentina invaded her space. “How do you know?”

The brunette hit the counter and Valentina trapped her there, palms pressed to the granite on either side of her.

Valentina bent, lips almost touching the heat of her skin but not quite, and spoke against Juliana’s neck: “How do you know it’s not?”

She heard the girl inhale sharply and it pleased her to no end. Before Juliana, she had never really felt the thrill of the near-touch. It was intoxicating to hear her breathing change, to feel the flutter of her pulse.

“Um -” Juliana said. 

Valentina did kiss her then, but just barely, and Juliana’s hands found her hips. 

She brushed her nose up the column of her throat and across her jawline until she was just below Juliana’s ear, and then she kissed there too. “Hmm?”

She drew a finger up the brunette’s arm, hoping for goosebumps, but Juliana pushed away from the counter and Valentina stumbled back, the sudden shift making her feel anchorless at sea. 

“I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work,” Juliana said, even as she glanced at Valentina’s lips. “You’re not getting out of it.” She grabbed Valentina’s concoction and then looked at her expectantly. “Come on, presentation isn’t everything - it could be amazing.” 

Valentina sighed. She picked up Juliana’s handiwork and held it to the light, looking through the bottom of the glass. “Are those coffee grounds?!”

“I won’t confirm or deny what’s in there.” She clinked their glasses together and grinned. “Bottoms up!”

Valentina held her breath to dull the taste, but it did nothing for the consistency. She imagined it was what a mouthful of pond sludge would feel like and tried not to gag. 

She forced it down and slammed the cup back to the island and, god, the aftertaste was like every condiment known to man had been sloshed around a puddle of coffee that had been spilled on the sidewalk and had then been rolled in sugar to mask its evil. 

She coughed. “What the actual fuck.”

Juliana’s lips twitched. “Not good?”

Valentina’s jaw dropped. 

“Hey, Bloody Marys exist - I could have been onto the next big thing. Maybe it just needs some tweaks?” She took another sip of her drink. “This is delicious, by the way.” She licked the sweetness from her lips like a dare.

Valentina started towards her. “You’re dead…”

Juliana broke into laughter and ran, keeping the island between them as Valentina sought her revenge. “I was just making up for lost time,” she shouted. “I was channeling my inner child!” 

“That was _disgusting_ ,” Valentina said. “I can’t believe you made me drink it!” 

She almost slipped as she changed direction to catch Juliana off guard, which, of course, didn’t work. “Why are you so freakishly fast?!”

When Juliana made a break for it, Valentina had the upper hand - bolting down the hall to head her off in the living room. Juliana cursed in surprise when Valentina tackled her to the couch and pinned her. 

“That wasn’t very nice,” Valentina said, chest heaving. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at the girl, whose eyes never failed to make Valentina’s gut feel like it’d been scrambled. 

“Well, I am a Slytherin,” Juliana said, leaning up to kiss her. Valentina thought her arms might buckle as the girl laughed against her lips and pulled away far too soon. The brunette scrunched her nose. “You taste like hot sauce.” 

Valentina chuckled and was struck with the urge to pepper Juliana’s face with hot-sauce kisses - to recapture her lips and never stop tasting them. 

Instead, she shifted away - because she couldn’t. They couldn’t. Not here, where anyone could walk in. 

And she hated the world for a second - hated that she had to think about these things when all she wanted was to shout her love from the rooftops and not have people wonder why.

Juliana’s smile dulled at the edges, picking up on her unease. And Valentina couldn’t stand it - she wished she could turn back time to just a moment ago, when Juliana’s face looked like Valentina had shined a light in it. 

She did the only thing she could think of to stop the worry in the brunette’s eyes, the questions on her lips - she hit Juliana in the face with a pillow. 

The girl was stunned for only a second before she grabbed her own pillow and showed no mercy. 

“Are.” _thwack_

“You.” _thwack_

“Freaking.” _thwack_

“Kidding.” _thwack_

“Me!” _thwack_

Valentina tried to strike back but only managed another hit or two before she switched tactics - blocking her head from the onslaught and retreat. “I was just giving you the sleepover you deserve,” she shouted from behind her pillow shield. She half-expected Juliana’s to split open and cover them in feathers. 

“VALE.”

Juliana stopped mid swing. 

Valentina spun and tried to catch her breath. “Eva, hi! Uh -” she swiped the hair out of her face. “What’s up?” 

Her sister glanced between them, distrustful eyes lingering on Juliana. “What are you doing?”

“Um -” Valentina looked at the pillow in her hands. Because, really, wasn’t it obvious? She shrugged, her mouth a lopsided grin.

Eva pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Some of us have a very early day tomorrow,” she said, and Valentina knew she was one snarky comment away from an explosion, so she bit her tongue. “Can you please keep it down?”

“Yup,” Valentina said, tossing the pillow back to the couch. Juliana did the same. “Sorry. This is Juliana, by the way,” she said, gesturing. If Eva noticed the way Valentina’s smile grew, she didn’t acknowledge it. 

Juliana half-waved. “Sorry for the noise.” 

Eva regarded her with a slight smile, a tilt of the head. “How do you know Vale,” she asked, by way of greeting. 

“Eva, come on,” Valentina cut in, not wanting Juliana to withstand an interrogation. “We’re friends from school.”

And as she said it, wrongness seeped into her bones. Because Juliana was so much _more_ , and it felt like she had cheapened everything they were with one word. 

But tonight was _about_ them - about forgetting everything else. And that included getting into it with her sister, even if Valentina did wish she had been brave enough to tell her truth. 

“I’m sure we’ll see more of each other, then. Vale -”

“We’ll be quieter.” 

She nodded. “Have fun.” 

And then she was gone, taking the apprehension in the room with her. 

Valentina smoothed a brow, flustered hands busying themselves. “Sorry about that.” 

“Your sister is...not like you at all.”

Valentina laughed. “No. Wanna watch a movie?”

 

* * *

 

They picked something random on Netflix, but it faded to the background when Valentina realized there was so much more they could do with their sleepover extravaganza. “Do you want to play truth or dare?”

“After I made you drink that nasty concoction? Hell no. You’ll make me do something terrible.” 

Valentina smiled, because she was right. “Fine. Truth or truth, then.” 

Juliana sniggered. “That’s not a thing.”

“Sure it is. Truth or truth?”

“Nevermind, I take it back - give me a dare.”

“Too late, I already asked.”

Valentina quirked a brow - _go on_ , _choose_. 

“I mean...truth?”

And the game started with simple questions: _What’s your favorite color? Favorite movie? If you could have a superpower, what would it be? If you were marooned on an island and could only bring 3 books, which would you choose?_

But then they got more personal, and Valentina was overjoyed to learn more about Juliana and to share more of herself. With her head in the brunette’s lap and Juliana playing with her hair, she thought she could do this forever. 

“When was your first kiss,” Juliana asked. And Valentina told her all about the kindergarten wedding she had been a part of. 

“It was more of a set-up to see if we’d kiss,” she said. 

The whole class had attended, and Valentina’s friends picked dandelions for her bouquet and flower crown. 

“And Sergio - the dude you got jealous of at the club - don’t look at me like that you already admitted it - he was the priest. And he told us we could kiss or whatever, so I grabbed Diego - that was his name - and did it, and then I kind of like, shoved him away.” 

Valentina laughed at the memory and Juliana’s squinty-eyed smile. “And then he ran away with the boys, and everyone was screaming, and all of the girls swarmed around me and wanted to know if it was gross. So yeah, anyway, I’m married. I hope that’s not a problem.” 

“It’s not ideal, but I’m already in too deep. But seriously,” she grinned, “that’s adorable.”

“I was hot shit in kindergarten.” 

“You’re still hot shit.” Juliana reddened as soon as she said it.

Valentina wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, Reaaaallly?” 

“No! Your turn.” 

“Do you think I’m hot shit?”

Juliana flipped Valentina’s hair into her face and Valentina laughed, sweeping it away. 

“Okay, fine. What’s your most embarrassing moment?”

“Today, or…?” 

Valentina fixed her with a look. 

“I was in this figure drawing class, and I’d never been in one before. And I knew what was going to happen, obviously, but as soon as the model took his robe off I, like, malfunctioned.”

Valentina hid a smile behind her hand as the brunette continued. 

She didn’t want to be weird and stare too long, or too short, and she wanted to see what the other artists were doing. 

“And I ended up knocking all of my stuff over, and it was _loud_. Everyone stared at me, and I was like crawling on the ground trying to pick it all up. And it’s not so much that I knocked everything over, it’s that it felt like everyone was like _she clearly doesn’t belong here_. I don’t know, I was mortified.” 

“Well, joke’s on them. Your art will be famous someday - nude portraits and all.” 

“Shut up,” she said, but she smiled. 

“So what kinds of things would you do at sleepovers? Did you put bras in the freezer or whatever?” 

Valentina snorted. “I’ve never done that, but we can try it if you want.” She motioned towards the girl and Juliana batted her hands away, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Don’t you dare!”

Valentina chuckled. “I don’t know, we’d do all sorts of things - especially if it was a big group, like a party or something. I wasn’t allowed at boy/girl sleepovers growing up, so I had to lie about it or sneak out - ”

“I never took you for the sneaking-out type.” 

Valentina flashed a roguish grin. “We Gryffindors are always getting into trouble. Anyway, we’d play truth or dare, or spin the bottle, or beer pong, or other drinking games. I don’t know, after a certain age we just had sleepovers so we could drink. But it was great because when people passed out we’d all be assholes about it and prank them.”

If someone was out cold, everyone would draw on their face with permanent marker. “Lots of penises, obviously.”

“A wise choice,” Juliana said, sagely. 

Or they would put shaving cream in someone’s hand and then tickle their face with a feather. “And they’d think it was a bug or something, so when they went to get rid of it they’d slap themselves with the shaving cream.”

When Juliana threw her head back in a laugh, Valentina was eager to tell more. “Oh my God, and then one time,” Valentina paused as the memory surfaced. Her smile was wicked. “This is terrible.” 

And Juliana’s eyes sparkled. She leaned in close. _Tell me_. 

“So, Sergio - you remember him right?” Valentina winked, and Juliana rolled her eyes. “He fell asleep one night and one of our other friends heard that if you dip a sleeping person’s hand in warm water it’ll make them pee, so -”

“No,” Juliana said, her eyes wide.

Valentina nodded.  

Juliana spoke from behind her hand: “It worked?”

Valentina nodded again, her smile stretching to her ears.

“Gross!”

“You should have seen how fast we all jumped back. I wish I knew you then so you could’ve been there, it was hilarious.” 

Juliana’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile, but it seemed weighted. “There’s no way.”

“No, I _know_ , but _if_ we knew each other back then...”

Juliana looked genuinely surprised. “You think we would have been friends?”

Valentina sat up, eyes searching Juliana’s. “Of course,” she said, no question. 

“We wouldn’t have exactly been from the same side of the tracks. You know?” 

Valentina furrowed her brow, taken aback. There was no shame in the brunette’s voice - why would there be - only a certainty that made Valentina’s chest feel tight. 

“And you think that would have mattered to me,” Valentina said. Had she given any indication that she cared about stuff like that?

“No,” Juliana said, grabbing Valentina’s hand. She frowned, unsure how to explain. “I just think we got lucky to have met when we did...if I’d known you when I was younger - I don’t know - it was a different life.”

And in a heart-skip of a moment, Valentina spoke what she knew in the deepest parts of herself to be true: “Well maybe I’d find you in any life.” 

Juliana softened. The brunette looked at her with such tenderness that, as far as Valentina was concerned, the girl could’ve reached right through her ribs and stolen her heart. 

Hadn’t she already?

Juliana’s squinty-eyed smile returned. “Maybe. I hope so.” She tucked a lock of hair behind Valentina’s ear. “It’s your turn.”

A question was on the tip of Valentina’s tongue and had been since she mentioned spin the bottle. But considering it was only the two of them: “Have you ever played 7 minutes in heaven?”

Juliana was visibly flustered, but she schooled her features quickly and was the picture of nonchalance when she answered. “No.”

Valentina bit her lip, quieting her smile at the answer she’d hoped for. She played with Juliana’s fingers. “We could check it off of the sleepover bucket list, if you want.” 

Juliana swallowed, her hand hot in Valentina’s. “Okay.”

Valentina practically vaulted from the couch, making Juliana laugh as she pulled her up and led her to a closet down the hall. She tugged the brunette into the dark and shut the door, their faces illuminated by Valentina’s phone as she set the timer. 

“So usually there’s the whole _will we or won’t we_ awkwardness, but...” She slid her hand to the back of Juliana’s neck and drew her in. The brunette let out a little sound when their lips met, and then she returned the kiss and deepened it, her hands in Valentina’s hair. 

They knocked coats from hangers and tripped over shoes as Juliana pushed them back until she had Valentina against the wall. And if Valentina thought she was turned on before, she was altogether unprepared for the rush she felt when Juliana moved a leg between hers.

Valentina gasped into her mouth, and Juliana paused for a second, like she wasn’t quite sure what she’d done. But then Valentina felt Juliana smile against her lips as she changed the angle of their kiss, fingers digging into Valentina’s hips to press harder against her. 

And everything was grinding hips and echoed sighs, and Valentina never wanted to stop - wondering at how she was coming completely undone in this girl’s arms, fully clothed. 

The brunette’s hands were under Valentina’s shirt and traveling up her sides, and her stomach swooped when Juliana’s thumbs brushed the sides of her chest. Her heart pounded as fast as her head spun, and she had to remember to breathe. 

Valentina ran her fingers up Juliana’s back, the brunette’s warm skin impossibly soft. And she didn’t think when she unhooked her bra. Didn’t think as she started to pull Juliana’s shirt over her head. 

Then the alarm pierced through the moment, shrill and cruel, making them jump. And Valentina was in a haze, forehead pressed to Juliana’s as they caught their breath. She wanted to swallow the space between them and pick up where they left off, but the blaring continued. 

She groaned, and Juliana’s laugh dashed across her lips. “I have no idea where my phone is, it fell out of my pocket.”

“Shouldn’t the screen light up,” Juliana said as they fumbled in the dark. Valentina found the wood of the door first and shoved it open, flooding the small space with light. She spied it face down by a fallen tennis racket and scooped it up. 

“I officially hate this thing,” she said. 

Juliana chuckled, smoothing Valentina’s hair. “Successful game, though.”

“You think,” Valentina said, a flirty curve to her lips. 

“I can’t believe you got my bra un-done so fast,” Juliana said, reaching back to hook it on her way out. “Done this with lots of girls?”

Valentina strode after her. “No, I’m just that good…” 

She trailed off as Juliana nearly collided with Lucía, whose startled smile stretched as the girls all but tumbled from the closet and then froze. 

Lucía burst into laughter, hands clapped together. “Oh my God, the jokes I could make right now.”

Juliana’s head swiveled from Lucía to Valentina, a confused tilt to her lips. 

Valentina cleared her throat, pulse thrumming so wildly she could hear it. “So, this is Juliana.” 

“Yeah,” she said, her smile wide. “I figured. Juliana, I’m so happy you’re here - I couldn’t wait to meet you.” Lucía swept the brunette into a hug, and when Juliana looked over the blonde’s shoulder to give Valentina a shy smile, her heart soared. 

“If you girls are done in the closet, should we move this party into the other room?” 

Lucía threw her head back and cackled when both girls turned beet red. 

 

* * *

 

Valentina made everyone tea. 

And as she passed the mugs around and cradled her own, her palms were as warm as the smile in her heart. Because Lucía and Juliana were laughing about some joke Valentina had missed, and Lucía was begging to see some of Juliana’s art sometime, and Valentina couldn’t describe the feeling of it - the relief and the joy. 

Because somewhere in the dark parts of her mind, she wasn’t sure she’d get this - a family that genuinely wanted to know Juliana and to see Valentina happy with her. 

And maybe not everyone would understand - but she had Guille and Lucía, and she was off to a good start.

“Okay, I’ll leave you two alone,” the blonde said, waving away their offers to stay and hang out. “It’s late anyway. Plus, I’ve already interrupted date night enough.” 

They blushed again and she laughed. “It’s too easy, I swear.” 

With a cheers of her tea, she left. 

 

* * *

 

They were sprawled on the couch, another movie breaking through the pitch black of an otherwise sleeping house, and they couldn’t seem to stop talking.

“If you could do anything,” Juliana asked, “what would you want to be when you grow up?”

“An astronaut. But I’ll be honest, I have no idea what that even means. I just want to float around with no gravity and look at space...If you could go back in time and change something in your life, would you?”

“No,” Juliana said. 

“Wow, I barely finished the question!”

“Well I wouldn’t! Everything in my past happened for a reason and led me here. To this moment. Why would I want to change anything?”

Valentina hummed thoughtfully, but she wasn’t at all surprised by the answer - Juliana owned her scars and wore them like armor. “What was your first impression of me?” 

Juliana snorted. “Disney princess with a hangover.”

Valentina dropped Juliana’s hand. “Seriously?”

But the dark pools of her eyes sparkled like sunlight in water, and Valentina folded her arms around Juliana’s middle, snuggling closer. 

The brunette drew patterns on her back. “I didn’t know what to make of you. You were just so...curious. You made me curious. And I knew I’d see you again, if that makes sense. I don’t know how to explain it.” 

Valentina’s heart skipped like a thrown stone, rippling everything and leaving her tongue-tied. “Okay.” 

Juliana took a moment, like she was working up the courage to ask. And then: “Do you believe in soulmates?”

Valentina let out a disbelieving breath of a laugh and wondered if Juliana could feel her heart ricocheting through her ribs. “Oh, so you’re going to make _me_ say it?”

“I answered your question,” Juliana said. “Your turn.” She gave Valentina a little shake.

And it was easier with her head tucked into Juliana’s stomach, unable to look her in the eye, but Valentina still felt like a goddamn pillar of honesty when she said: “Before you, I never did. I don’t know how to explain it either. But I saw you, and everything just felt right. Like something clicked. You felt familiar...and it scared the shit out of me.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Juliana chuckled, ghosting her fingers down Valentina’s arm to make her shiver. “You straight up ran away.”

“I didn’t _run_ ,” Valentina said, rubbing the goosebumps away. 

“You kind of did. But I probably would have done the same if I wasn’t at work. It freaked me out, how badly I wanted to know you.”

Valentina adjusted to look up at her. “You’re so obsessed with me.”

Juliana pushed her away and Valentina almost fell off the couch. “Says the stalker!” 

Valentina laughed. “I mean we’re here right now, so you’re welcome.” 

“ _Oh_ my God.”

Juliana yawned, and Valentina copied. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t asked me what I wished for at the fountain.”

Valentina smiled - she’d definitely thought about it. “It felt like cheating. But you can tell me now if you want…”

“Nah - better keep the mystery alive. It’s the only thing keeping you around.”

“Oh, for sure.”

 

* * *

 

Valentina woke to the roar of movie credits and groaned. Why were the credits always unnecessarily loud? 

She reached to turn it down but stopped when she felt Juliana against her. The brunette was snuggled into her side, arm slung over Valentina’s stomach, head drooped against her shoulder. 

Valentina’s heart warmed like an ember. She strained for the remote and tried to keep the rest of her body still - sliding it towards her with the tips of her fingers until she could hit mute.

Juliana shifted a bit but didn’t wake, and Valentina kissed the top of her head as the credits rolled. 

Her lids were heavy, eyes prickling, when Netflix asked if she was still watching. 

As much as she didn’t want to move, she knew they couldn’t stay there, so Valentina forced herself from the sleepy warmth of the moment. She brushed the hair from the brunette’s face. 

“Juls,” she said, thumb stroking behind her ear. 

Juliana’s eyes clenched tight, her nose scrunched. “No.”

Valentina’s lips quirked. “Wake up.”

The brunette nuzzled further into her, the arm across Valentina’s middle tightening. “No.”

Valentina chuckled, face pressed to the top of the girl’s head. She was charmed by this version of Juliana, and it was tempting to give into her - but fear of the wrong people finding them wrapped up in each other made her resolute. 

She sighed and untangled herself from the brunette, and Juliana’s face slid down her arm until it plopped onto the couch cushion. 

“Nooo,” she groaned. 

And Valentina was so smitten she thought she’d die. 

She knelt beside her and coaxed the girl awake, fingers dancing over her eyebrows, her nose, and her cheekbones, across the curves of her jaw. “Come on, Juls. We can’t stay here, we have to go to bed.” 

Juliana cracked one eye open only to narrow it. “You’re the worst.”

“I know.”

“But I like you.”

Valentina grinned. “I know.” 

“Did you draw on my face?”

“Yes, you’re practically unrecognizable.” 

Juliana rolled from the couch, taking Valentina’s hand and shuffling behind as she pulled her through the dark house. 

“Where do you want to sleep,” Valentina whispered on the steps. “We have some nice guest rooms made up, or -”

Juliana stopped, tugging Valentina back like an anchor. “I thought I was staying with you?”

“You can, if that’s what you want. I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anythi-”

“I want to stay with you.”

And Valentina didn’t know why it made her nervous, because they’d been sleeping just fine downstairs, but it did. She nodded, heart in her throat, and led them to her bedroom. 

She switched on the small desk lamp so they wouldn’t be blinded by too much light, and Juliana hovered by the door, now wide awake. She shifted from one foot to the other, an arm drawn across herself. 

And suddenly Valentina didn’t know how to act, what to say. “Um. I’ll just go to the bathroom to change and give you privacy and stuff. Yeah.” 

Juliana smiled, and Valentina’s face burned. 

It felt like they were spun about and directionless - bumping into each other when Juliana went to brush her teeth, hushed apologies murmured into the night. 

And when they were in bed with far too much space between them, Valentina stared up at the ceiling as starlight circled the room, pulse thumping in her ears as she gathered the courage to move - because being this close without touching was surely a crime.

When she finally turned to face her, Juliana’s eyes were closed - but she was too stiff, too folded into herself, to be asleep. 

She scooted closer until she felt the warmth of the other girl under the sheets, and Juliana swallowed. When Valentina draped a tentative arm over Juliana’s stomach, the brunette immediately smoothed her hands over it, hugging her closer. And they laid like that, Valentina’s head tucked into Juliana’s neck, until Juliana’s hands started to move. 

Valentina’s fingers tightened against the girl’s waist as the brunette stroked from her wrist to her shoulder and back again. Valentina wanted to slip her hand under Juliana’s shirt but feared if she moved she'd break whatever spell they were under and Juliana would stop. 

When the brunette’s touch changed from a gentle graze to a more deliberate press, Valentina struggled to pull herself together. Her heart seemed to want to rip free from her body, and she trembled with the effort to stay still. The harder she tried to conceal her erratic breathing, the worse it got. 

But the air was also filled with Juliana’s ragged breath, and as the girl’s touch drove her wild, Valentina couldn't think of a better way to go insane. 

Then Juliana’s hand covered her own and took it with her. All she could do was follow as the brunette dragged Valentina’s palm slowly up her stomach to her breast, and Valentina inhaled sharply as she felt like her entire body stopped and was about to explode at once. And then Juliana squeezed Valentina’s hand over her until Valentina cupped her fully, and Valentina had never been more wrecked than she was in that moment. 

When she shifted to look at Juliana, the girl was already gazing at her. The brunette’s eyes were blown wide and nervous - vulnerable, like Valentina might shut her down. 

Finally, Valentina moved.

Her mouth found Juliana’s in a new kind of kiss - one that increased the beating of her heart tenfold and left no question about what they felt. What they wanted.

And Valentina was on top of her, sliding a leg between the brunette’s to press against her, and the girl let out an unintelligible groan, low in her throat. Then her arms circled Valentina, gathering her to her. 

The brunette’s fingers dug into Valentina’s hips, pulling her closer, always closer, and Valentina reached to move one of those hands to her ass, letting Juliana know it was okay for her to touch, too. 

Then their hands were everywhere, and the deep pull grew, hitting low in Valentina’s stomach and shaking her to her core as desire quaked through her. 

Valentina didn’t think it was possible to want someone so much.

They couldn’t move fast enough, tugging off shirts and dragging lips across new skin - chest to naked chest and arching into each other at the heady, impossible feeling of being so close. 

Valentina untied the string of Juliana’s sweatpants, her fingers starting to dip beneath them when Juliana put a hand on her wrist. “Wait,” she said, the word a rasp. 

And Valentina did. 

“I’m sorry,” Valentina said, her voice a low husk. She went to pull her hand back, but Juliana kept it in place. 

“No,” she said. “I want you to, I do. It’s just.” She took a deep breath, eyes fixed on the ceiling as she said: “I’ve never done this before.”

And the way she said it, Valentina understood - She hadn’t _done_ this before. Any of it. 

Valentina kissed her stomach and shifted back up the bed to lie with her. She wanted to smack herself for moving so fast, for assuming that Juliana was just as ready as she was. She propped her head in her hand and drew patterns across the hot skin of the brunette’s chest. 

“Juls,” she whispered. “Look at me.” 

And Juliana did - her eyes as open and honest as Valentina had ever seen them. 

“We don’t have to do anything. I’m sorry, I got carried away -” 

“No, I want this,” Juliana said, taking Valentina’s hand to kiss it. “You just...have to show me,” she added, softer. 

Valentina swallowed, her own nerves sneaking up on her. She wanted Juliana to know she wasn’t alone in this - Valentina had no clue what she was doing. 

“I’ve never experienced anything like this either,” she said, pulling Juliana on top of her. The rise and fall of the brunette’s chest against hers filled her with warmth. “It kind of feels like my first time, too.”

Juliana smiled and bent to kiss her neck. “Because I’m a girl?”

Valentina looked at her for a long, searching moment. “Because you’re you.”

Juliana’s eyes shone, overflowing with the same emotion Valentina felt swelling in her heart. The brunette nodded, and then she kissed her - soft and slow and deep.   

And there wasn't an inch of her that Valentina didn't taste, from the bend of her ear to the base of her throat, the swell of her breast, the curve of her hips, the inside of her thighs. And when she finally tasted her wet heat, tracing in wide circles, Juliana wove her fingers in Valentina’s hair and arched her hips as Valentina loved her and loved her and loved her.

Juliana was quiet as she fell apart - as Valentina’s careful fingers pressed into her - one hand clenched in the bedsheets, the other on the back of Valentina's neck. And when Valentina crawled up her body to kiss her, Juliana’s heavy-lidded, spent smile was the most exquisite thing she’d ever seen. 

Valentina’s own pleasure rushed through her when Juliana flipped them, hand sliding between her legs like she’d been waiting an eternity to touch her. The brunette took her time, kissing down Valentina’s body and grazing her teeth over the squirming girl’s hip bone. 

She copied some of what Valentina had done with her fingers, and when her dark eyes flickered up to make sure she was doing it right, Valentina could only nod, throwing her head back on the pillow when Juliana pushed inside. 

When Juliana began to move, Valentina moved with her. And her pleasure built and rolled through her like an avalanche - sure and fast and all consuming.

After, when they held each other with legs intertwined and arms thrown over hips and foreheads pressed together, Valentina looked into Juliana’s sleepy eyes, trying so hard to stay awake, and saw galaxies. Always galaxies.

But the stars there didn’t make her feel small - they made her feel seen. 

 


End file.
